


3 Months

by Runningtowardsfire



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Artist Clarke, Bellarke, College, Drama & Romance, Explicit Language, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Minor Memori, Protective Bellamy, Sex, Smut, bet, group friendships, minor Linctavia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-05-23 21:24:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 79,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14941667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Runningtowardsfire/pseuds/Runningtowardsfire
Summary: "3 months," Wells stated with a smirk. "You only have 3 months."Bellamy raised an eyebrow. "What, you don't think i can?"Wells laughed and picked up his drink, "Oh i know you can't."Bellamy turned back to stare at the blonde and his lips turned up into a devious smile.This would be easy, he thought."Done," He said as he swivelled back round in his chair to look at Wells."Seriously?" Murphy spluttered from behind them.Bellamy nodded."Fine," Wells picked up his drink and motioned for the others to do the same. "The bet states that Bellamy has 3 months to get her into bed. If he succeeds, he gets the money. If he doesn't, then I get his car.""Challenge accepted," Bellamy grinned and they chinked their glasses together.Bellamy's got a reputation around Arkadia as a ladies man.The problem is, he can't stick to one woman. And even though everyone knows what he's like, they all still come running.That is until he sets his sights on Clarke, the mysterious ice princess who won't let anyone in.To him, she's a bet. Another tick off his list.To her, hes trouble.What could go wrong?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First bellarke fanfic. Bit of a slow first chapter just so you can get the gist of the story. I hope you like. Feedback is appreciated :)

She knew she shouldn't be looking.

She knew it was wrong and it was invasion of his privacy, but he had left it right there on the table.

She turned to look towards the toilets where he had began walking to and watched his back disappear behind the door. Her eyes moved back to the table where a brown wallet lay.

 _Don't do it Clarke,_  she thought to herself. But she couldn't help it, curiosity had officially caught up to her.

_At least this way I'll know if he is who says he is_

She reached over and opened it up and sure enough there lay his ID. The picture was of him, same ice blue eyes and pale skin. The name Jay Michaels at the top in bold, the same name that was on his dating profile. She let out a sigh of relief but her body was still tense, she needed to stop doing this. Trying to find something wrong with every guy she met, but she couldn't help it. She knew Raven meant well when she set her up a profile and she knew she meant well when she set up the dates. She wanted her to get back out in the field and have fun.

It wasn't like she didn't want to have fun, she just wasn't open to it. She wasn't ready yet.

And that's how she never saw the guy again after their date, there was always something wrong.

 _He breathed to heavy, he spoke with his mouth open or he didn't speak at all,_  anything she could find she would use.

It wasn't that she was picky, it was just that nobody ever matched up to  _Him._

But this time was going to be different, she thought I'm going to really give him a chance.

And then she saw it. In the bottom right corner was his date of birth, and by her calculations, he wasn't even old enough to be in this bar with her. She tensed up again.

 _Hes a liar,_  she thought,  _Too young._

And that was all it took for her to be done with the date, to be done with him. She pushed her chair back and walked over to the end of bar where a pretty young woman came over.

"Can I have a vodka tonic, please.?" she asked.

"Sure, no problem." the bartender replied and went off to make her drink.

Once she came back drink in hand, Clarke leaned in closer to her.

"I'm with someone on date" She spoke quietly "The thing is, he isn't old enough to be in here."

And to prove her point, she showed the bartender her dates ID card. The bartenders eyes scanned the card and widened, she looked back up to Clarke nodded then scurried off to the main doors, no doubt to get help. Clarke smiled widely and went back over to her table. She sat down and put his ID back in his wallet and moved it back into the position it was before.

Not two minutes had passed and he had returned.

"Sorry about that sexy, had to take a quick phone call." He grinned and she felt her stomach drop in disgust.

"Not a problem." She replied smoothly.

"I see you got yourself a drink." He stated looking at her. "I'm just gonna go order one, I'll be back in a tick."

She nodded and for the second time that night he got up and left her at the table.

He didn't even make it to the bar before two large men had stepped in his way and demanded he leave. He didn't go without a fight and he didn't go quietly.

Shouts of "Do you know who i am?" And "You cant do this to me!" had caught the attention of most of the people in bar, who were now openly staring. But Clarke didn't let it phase her, instead she stayed quiet and checked her watch. She had another 45 minutes to kill before she could go back home to Raven. She couldn't tell her how bad the date had gone, or that it was her who had ruined it. She wouldn't understand. Instead Clarke would tell her how amazing the date had gone, how much she had liked the man. She would promise her there would be another date and that would satisfy Raven for a few more weeks until she could come up with another excuse. With time to waste, Clarke sat back in the chair listening to her date wail as he was escorted out the bar.

Over on the other side of the bar, three men were celebrating until they heard the commotion.

"I wonder what's happening over there." One of the men stated sipping his beer.

"It's none of our business, Wells." Chimed in his friend.

"Murphy, You're usually the first person on the scene when there is drama" Wells bit back.

"Yeah well you're usually the first person to try and give orders."

"Guys, We're meant to be celebrating remember?" The third friend reminded them.

"Your right, Bellamy!" Murphy banged his hands on the bar like he was hitting a drum "And to celebrate, we need shots!"

"And women!" Wells replied.

"You couldn't get a woman if you tried!" Murphy retorted and waved the bartender down.

"That's because I'm not into women"

"Touche" Bellamy chuckled. "But we don't need women, we can have them whenever we want."

Bellamy heard Wells snort and he looked over with a raised eyebrow.

"You know its true!"

"It really is." Murphy butted in and placed a round of shots on the bar in front of them.

"You're not a God Bellamy, not everyone finds you attractive." said Wells a he downed his shot.

"99.9% of them do." Bellamy said arrogantly "They que up at my door begging me to go out with them, I can have any girl I want."

Wells laughed and this time Murphy joined in.

"Listen man" Murphy stood up and put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder "You're good, I'll give you that. But you're not that good."

Bellamy's eyebrows shot up, feeling slightly offended he said "Alright, I'll prove it."

Murphy downed his shot, lay back in his chair and muttered "Oh this should be good."

He was used to this kind of behaviour from the pair of them. They were constantly riling each other up and Bellamy always took the bait.

Wells stared at Bellamy thoughtfully.

"Okay" he said "Lets make a bet."

Murphy shook his head and Bellamy smiled.

"What kind of of bet?."

Wells stared past Bellamy with furrowed eyebrows as if confused, Bellamy followed his gaze but was unsure at what he was looking at. when he turned back to face him, Wells was staring at him with a wicked smile.

"How about I choose someone, any woman in this bar and you have to get her to sleep with you."

Bellamy laughed, that would be a breeze for him. He did it all the time.

"Okay, but what do i get out of it?." "Apart from sleeping with a beautiful woman?" Wells laughed "I'll give you the rest of money you need to go travelling."

Bellamy's breathing hitched. Travelling is something he'd been wanting to do since high school, he wanted to see the world and all the history behind it. He'd just never been able to afford it, so ever since leaving high school he'd gotten a job and was constantly putting money aside to save up for it. Wells wasn't poor and neither was his family, he had grown up across town in Polis. Bellamy had grown up to understand that the people who lived their were rich. This was an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss, and it was something he was good at. But even with these thoughts Bellamy was suspicious.

"What would you get out of it?"

"Your car."

"My car? Why? It's a piece of junk."

"Forget the why. The question is are you in? or are you too chicken?."

Bellamy grinned, he definitely wasn't chicken, he could do this with his eyes closed.

"Pick someone."

Wells laughed and stood up from his chair, his eyes scanned the bar until he found the perfect person. He already knew he was going to choose her but he didn't want it to be to obvious.

"Her." Wells pointed to behind Bellamy.

Bellamy turned to where he was pointing to see a young woman sat in the corner alone. The same girl who had had all that commotion with a guy earlier.

 _She's pretty_ , he thought  _I've totally got this_.

Bellamy smiled and turned back to Wells. "How long?"

"3 months." Wells stated with a smirk. "You only have 3 months."

Bellamy raised an eyebrow. "What, you don't think I can?"

Wells laughed and picked up his drink. "Oh i know you can't."

Bellamy turned back to stare at the blonde. She had her chin resting in the palm of her hand and was looking down into her drink with a sad expression. His lips turned up into a devious smile.

_This would be easy._

"Done." He said as he swivelled back round in his chair to look at Wells.

"Seriously?" Murphy spluttered from behind them.

Bellamy nodded.

"Fine." Wells picked up his drink and motioned for the others to do the same. "The bet states that Bellamy has 3 months to get her into bed. If he succeeds, he gets the money. If he doesn't, then I get his car."

"Challenge accepted" Bellamy grinned and they chinked their glasses together.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG Thankyou so much for all Kudos and the comments you guys! I really appreciate it. :) The beginning of this chapter is a continuation on from the first one. I hope you like it.

"I'd hurry up if I was you," Murphy piped up after taking a sip of his drink, "Both times I've look over she’s been checking her watch, so I think she's getting ready to leave." 

Bellamy laughed, "Not if I've got anything to do with it."

He stood up and grabbed his beer. "Watch and learn boys, watch and learn."

With that parting sentence, he sauntered over to the blondes table whilst his friends watched on in amusement.

He placed his beer down on the table and pulled the chair out, the scraping sound caught her attention and she looked at him with a bewildered expression.

"Can I help you?" She asked sweetly.

"Well hello to you too gorgeous," He said as he sat down in front of her.

She scoffed. "Look, I'm not interested."

He looked at her properly then, his eyes roaming over her features, taking her in greedily. She was beautiful there was no doubt about that, with pale smooth skin and bright icy blue eyes.

 Bellamy knew then that this was going to be an enjoyable experience.

"Who said I was interested?"

Her eyebrow hitched itself upwards. "Then why are you here?"

"I came to check if you were okay? I saw what happened with your boyfriend."

She scowled at his choice of words. "He's not my boyfriend."

"That's good to know."

"I thought you weren't interested?"

He shrugged and gave her his best  _'I'm charming'_   smile but all she did was roll her eyes.

"I'm Bellamy," He introduced himself and stuck his hand out expecting her to take it, she didn't.

"I don't care," She shrugged and looked back down to her watch.

Bellamy couldn’t lie, he felt incredibly turned on by her right now. He knew she was playing hard to get and he liked it even more when a girl did that and didn’t instantly try to get with him, but he knew it wouldn't last long, he always got them to crack.

"What about you? What's your name?" He queried but she just looked at him with a bored expression, and then looked back at her watch again.

He leaned back in chair and smiled.

"Come on, don't be like that. By the looks of it, you've got a bit of time kill, so what's the harm in chatting to me for a few minutes?"

She turned her gaze away from him and looked around the bar.

"Where are you from?" I tried again.

With a heavy sigh she looked back at me.

 "You don't give up, do you?"

I grinned at her.

"I live in Polis."

My eyes widened.

_She's one of the rich folk, great._

"And what's a girl from Polis doing in a bar in Arkadia?"

"I was on a date."

I nodded and sipped my drink whilst she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms in a standoffish way.

"What do you do for living?" He carried on undeterred.

"I work part time at an art gallery, but for the most part I go to college."

There was only one college in Polis and it was a prestigious one, very hard to get into. Not that Bellamy had tried; he'd skipped college all together after high school.

"What do you study?"

She didn't reply and moved her hand to stir her straw around in her half empty glass.

"You know, I find it offensive that you don't want to get know me," I smirked.

"I told you, I'm not interested."

"Okay, princess."

Her eyes snapped up to me quickly and she gave me a look of loathing.

"Don’t call me that!"

"Well you won't tell me your name so...” I trailed off.

She gave me another look of disgust and checked her watch, then she picked up her drink and finished it. With a few moments of silence, she took the opportunity to take another look around at her surroundings and catching sight of someone she recognised she looked back towards Bellamy.

"Are they your friends over there?" She nodded her head in the direction of where Wells and Murphy sat chuckling together.

 I nodded.

 She leaned in over the table and looked over to them.

"Hey Wells!" She called out over to them. Wells looked over with his eyes wide, a shocked expression forming on his features, then he slowly looked at me and his features changed from shock to looking nervous, as I put the pieces together. He raised his hand to Clarke and gave her a wave as she smiled in a much sweeter way than she had been with him all night. I glared at Wells as Clarke moved back to her seat and he just shrugged at me.

"How do you know, Wells?" I enquired.

"He goes to my College, what about you?"

_Of course he does._

"We met through a mutual friend."

"Nice."

Bellamy couldn’t get a read on her, which he struggled with. He usually knew how to read girls and how to speak to them, but she was a closed book.

He leaned in closer to her.

"You’re intriguing."

She looked down at her watch once more, smirked and looked back up to him. "I'm also leaving."

"Wait, what?" Bellamy spluttered not prepared for that. This wasn’t going the way he wanted it too and he wasn’t sure what to do about it. He'd never had a girl walk away from him before without least getting her number.

 _Or her name,_  he thought bitterly.

She stood up and started putting her coat on.

"Places to be, people to see," She said simply.

Bellamy quickly got out of his seat too, nearly knocking his drink over in the process.

"Can I get your number?" He said desperately.

She laughed and finished buttoning her coat, and then she leaned down and grabbed her bag and with one final look said "Goodbye Bellamy."

"Can I at least get your name?" He shouted at her retreating back, but she gave no answer and disappeared out of the doors. He stared after her dumbfounded.

_What the hell just happened?!_

His friend’s laughter called his attention over to them.

"We watched and learning nothing," Murphy spluttered between breathes.

He scowled and stormed over to them.

"The bet is off Wells," He said in a low voice, anger radiating off of him. "You know her, hell you knew who she was when you picked her! I can't do this when you're friends with her!"

Wells smiled "There wasn't anything in the bet rules that stated it had to be someone I didn't know, just that I got to pick someone in this bar. And she was sat in this bar Bellamy."

"How could you even want me to do that to your friend?" He said exasperated. "Isn't that kind of cruel?"

"I have my reasons, though they don't need to be explained to you."

Bellamy and Wells stared at each other in a kind of power struggle, both of them refusing to be the one that looked away first. Murphy, sensing the tension, tried to break them out of it.

"Bellamy you're just butt hurt because she didn't like you"

Bellamy's head whipped round, his ego hurt, and stared at Murphy.

"Listen, it won't take me long to persuade her to date me. I've got this," He said to them, though it was a statement he meant for himself, trying to convince himself that this was in fact possible. 

"By the sounds of it then, that means the bets still on?" Wells interjected.

Bellamy gave Wells a hard stare. Friend or no friend, Bellamy wouldn't give Wells the satisfaction of thinking he had won.

"Oh it’s on."

-

That morning Bellamy woke up feeling a lot more positive. For one thing, this girl was friends with Wells which meant in some way he had help when it came to her. Wells could tell him things about her that would help him have an advantage, so as soon Bellamy opened his eyes he reached for his phone and called his friend. After two rings, Wells answered.

"Morning sunshine," He said in a raspy voice down the phone "Take it you're not pissed anymore?"

"Oh I'm still pissed, but I have a way you can make it up to me."

Wells went quiet for a second. "I'm listening?"

"I want you to give me her number."

"What?!" Wells shouted. "No Bellamy, I can't do that."

Bellamy sat up in his bed, quickly. "What do you mean no? The whole point of you knowing her means you can help me out."

"Bellamy, we have a bet. Why on earth would I give you details on her that could give you an edge on winning it?"

"Because you're my friend," Bellamy stated dumbly.

"Yes, I'm your friend. But I'm not going to help you win; if I do then I lose out."

Bellamy finally realising what he meant, jumped out of bed, temper beginning to flare.

"This is bullshit man! How the hell am I going to get her to go on a date with me, if I never see her again?"

"Look, I'm not going to give you her number, I just can't do that. Plus Clarke would be hella pissed with me if she found out I'd given her number to the guy who tried to hit on her."

"So that’s her name,” Bellamy stated.

_It was a pretty name, it certainly suited her._

Wells went quiet again.

"Wells?" Bellamy questioned.

"I'm here," He sighed, "Look, I'll help you where I can, but the rest is up to you. I've got to go anyway, my dad needs me."

"OK, I'll see you later for drinks?"

"Yeah man."

And with that Wells hung up.

 _Fuck!_  Bellamy thought and threw his phone on the bed. He began to pace around his bedroom. W _hat am I going to do? I have no idea when I’m going to see her of if I’m even going to see her again._

He ran a hand through his hair.

_It’s not like I even know that much about her. All I know is that she was on a date last night and that she lives in Polis, I couldn’t very well look around Polis for her it was a huge place!_

Suddenly Bellamy remembered what else she had said that night, which was that she was currently studying at a college in Polis and he knew there was only one. His thoughts filled with an idea, not a very good one and he didn't know if it would even work, but he had to try. He looked at his clock on his bedside table and it read 8.30.

 _Most classes’ don’t start until around 9,_ he thought,  _I can make it._

He quickly put on some clothes, brushed his teeth, grabbed his car keys and made his way out the house.

-

The air was brisk and Bellamy instantly wished he'd worn a coat, but he had left the house in a hurry.

 At this precise moment, he wished he hadn't.

He was currently sat on a bench across the road from the Colleges main doors, waiting or at least hoping he would see Clarke, but so far he hadn't and the time was now near half ten. He knew it was a long shot when he thought of this plan, but he had to try something because Wells wasn't going to help him. He pulled out his phone and shivered.

_The air was definitely getting colder._

He opened his phone to see two new texts.

**From: Monty**

**Hey bro, I know its short notice but Harper's back in town tonight so I was wondering if you could cover my shift tonight?**

Bellamy sighed. He'd pretty much worked all last week and they were night shifts, so it usually meant he wouldn't be getting home until 8 in the morning. The thought of the extra money was only thing that spurred him on so he opened a new message.

**To: Monty**

**No problem, you owe me.**

The next text was a welcoming one.

**From: O**

**Hey big bro.**

**How are you? I miss you. Sorry I haven’t checked in, I've just been super busy exploring. I’m taking loads of photos like you asked. I’m excited to come home and see you but i will miss the streets of Greece. Lincoln says Hi. Don’t work yourself to much, I’ll see you soon.**

**Love, O xx**

Bellamy smiled. He missed her too, more than he'd like to admit. It had taken him a lot to agree to let Octavia to go out the country with her boyfriend Lincoln. He didn't know what it was, but he sure as hell didn't like the guy. However, he made his sister happy and he couldn't complain about that, she needed some happiness in her life. He was about to reply when he seen a throng of students leaving the entrance. He squinted to look at them but with everyone going in different directions it was hard to focus.

 _God, this is such a low point for me,_  Bellamy thought as he searched the crowds. He couldn't see her.

He was about to give up when the door to the college opened and two other people came out of it.

_He'd recognise that blonde hair anywhere._

She was with a dark haired girl and she laughed at something she said and Bellamy felt transfixed. It was the first time he had seen her laugh and it changed all her features. Her eyes looked lighter and she looked like she didn't have a care in the world.

_She looked beautiful._

_God get a grip,_ the thought came out of nowhere and Bellamy shook his head.

He watched as they came down the steps and hugged each goodbye. The brunette went right and Clarke stayed on the spot rooting for something in her bag, she pulled out a bunch of papers and looked at them with interest, then she began walking right towards him.

He quickly got up of the bench and looked for somewhere to hide, he hadn't thought about what he would do when he saw her. He felt like such a  _stalker._

With nowhere to run and not really sure what he should do, he decided to just handle it head on.

"Clarke?" he shouted over to her, feigning confusion. Her head snapped up and her eyes search for the owner of the sound, once she seen him her eyes went wide and her mouth formed an O.

"I thought it was you!" He shouted again.

"Bellamy?" She was confused, he could tell. "What are you doing here?"

She'd come fully up to him to now and stopped.

"I was just visiting in the area, you?" he threw her a smile.

"I go to college here," She said slowly.

"Oh yeah, I remember you saying."

She stood there staring at him for a few seconds like she was trying to solve a puzzle.

"Okay, well it was good seeing you," She then said flippantly, moving to go past him.

"Clarke, wait!" He swivelled his body round to face her and watched as she froze. She turned back around.

"How do you...” She trailed of in thought and realization dawned on her, "Wells."

Bellamy looked at her unsure of what she meant.

"My name?" she said with a raised eyebrow, only just realising that he knew it.

_Fuck, i wasn’t supposed to know that._

"Erm" Bellamy fumbled. "Yeah I got it out of him."

She sighed again.

"Look I have somewhere to be, what do you want Bellamy?"

"Oh come on Princess, you know you like talking to me."

She rolled her eyes at that. "God you're so full of yourself aren’t you?"

"No," He shook his head. "I just know what I want."

She crossed her arms, giving off the same kind of signals as she did at the bar.

 _at least were actually talking this time,_ he thought.

"What is it that you want?"

"I want a date with you."

She scoffed "You don't give up do you?"

"It's just one date," He said arrogantly.

"Goodbye Bellamy," She shut him down once again, turned on her heel and began walking away.

"Seriously princess? Walking off again?!" He called after her but she ignored him.

He refused to chase her down the street, that wasn't his thing. He was the one usually being chased, and his ego was too hurt to be hurrying down the sidewalk after Clarke. Besides he'd already lowered himself to embarrassing standards by basically stalking her outside of her college.

He pulled his phone back out of his pocket and sent a quick reply to Octavia, so she didn't think he was ignoring her, and then he placed the phone back in his pocket and stared at the empty spot where Clarke had just been stood.

Feeling cold, defeated and seriously pissed off, Bellamy made his way back towards his car.

_Who the fuck was this girl?_

-

"I'm beginning to regret this," He muttered down the phone to Wells. "Out of all the girls in that bar, you had to pick her."

"You're blaming me for picking a girl, who has no interest in you?" Wells laughed.

"Every girl is interested in me."

"Clarke isn't," Wells pointed out.

"She is, she just doesn't want to admit it to herself yet."

"You're so vain."

"It's not vanity, if I don’t love myself who will?" Bellamy said sarcastically and Wells rolled his eyes.

"I don't think you can do this Bellamy, I’ve got to admit."

"I can if you help me!"

Wells groaned in annoyance down the phone, "Bellamy we talked about this."

"Look, all I am asking for is her class schedule, that's it! Do this for me and I swear I won't ask for your help again!"

"She will kill me! I've already had a slew of angry texts from her for telling you her name!"

"Wells help a brother out. Who helped you study for your prestigious high school history test? The one you thought you would never be able to do? Who helped you get an A in in that test? Huh?"

"Fucks sake Bellamy, you know how to put someone on the spot"

"So is that a yes?" Bellamy stated excitedly.

"Yes," Wells murmured down the phone, "Yes I'll help, but this is the first and last time that I do this."

"See? I knew you loved me."

"Don’t push it Blake."

"Right I've got to get to work, have fun with Murphy. Try not to kill each other."

"No promises." He shot back.

Bellamy hung up the phone with a smile on his face. Today hadn't gone so well in the Clarke department but he had a new plan. A plan he knew would get him the results he needed, he just had to figure out how to execute it.

And that's how he had ended up back outside Clarke's College at 9:30 am the next morning. He'd not long finished an 8 hour night shift, so he hadn't even been to sleep. He was tired and grouchy but more determined than ever.

He pulled out his phone and flipped through his inbox messages until he came across the one from Wells.

**From: Wells.**

**Art room 209, class starts at 9 until half 10.**

**Go through the main doors, go pass reception and go up the stairwell on the left hand side to the second floor. I’m sure you can figure the rest out.**

With a tired grin, Bellamy made his way up the steps into Polis College.

There weren’t many people in the class, when he had found room 209 and walked in.  There were about ten students sitting in there, so finding her was quite easy. His eyes scanned the back of the students until he saw a mess of blonde hair, she was on the back row.

"Excuse me?" Someone drawled loudly from the front. "Can I help you?"

Bellamy looked down to the front of the lecture hall and old woman was staring at him with an expectant expression, he smiled at her.

"Yeah I'm here for the class."

"I haven't seen you in this class before," she recalled "And it's a bit too late for you to be a new student, considering the semesters nearly over."

"I'm planning on taking this class next year, the Dean said it would be okay if sat in and observed"

She pursed her lips, clearly annoyed by this but after a beat she said "Take a seat." and turned away from him to pick up the book she was in the middle of reading when he had walked in.

Clarke hadn't looked up at him like the other students had when he had walked in, so she hadn't noticed him. He moved over to her work station and sat down right next to her. She still hadn't looked up at him, but he figured the reason was because she hadn't even heard him. He could hear music coming from her very quietly and knew she had her headphones in.

He smirked, leaned over and pulled the earbud out of her ear, "Tut tut, not listening in class are we?"

Her head whipped round to look at him, surprise etched all over her face.

"Bellamy?" she whispered.

He leaned back in the chair and his smirk grew even bigger, "That's what they call me."

"What the fuck are you doing here?!" She whispered yelled at him. He turned back to look at her, all the surprise now gone from her face, replaced instead with anger. He hadn't expected her to be angry that he was here, but this girl had been full of surprises since the day he met her.

"I came to see you, princess."

"Don't call me that!" She huffed. "You can't be here! This is getting creepy now, yesterday outside my college and now you're in my class? Do you even go here?"

"You call it creepy, I call it romantic," He winked at her, "Most girls would be flattered that I came to see them."

"I'm not most girls!" Her eyes had narrowed at him now. "Are you stalking me?"

"You would love that."

"You need to leave," she hissed "Now."

"Not until you answer my question."

She furrowed her eyebrows. “What question?"

"Will you go on a date with me?"

"Are you serious?" She shouted, loudly this time. Loud enough that the other students had began to notice their interaction and were now openly staring at them.

"Am I interrupting you two?" The Professor called over to us sarcastically.

"No Ma-"

"Yes, you are." I interrupted over Clarke. I heard her take in a sharp breath.

"Bellamy!" She hissed.

"Excuse me?" The professor blanched at that.

"Just one second," I replied and turned away from her.

"How dare you-"

"Is that a yes then?" I cut her off and faced Clarke full on.

"Bellamy, you need to leave, right now." Her face had scrunched up, anger evident and to be honest it was turning Bellamy on with how hot she looked right now.

"I'm not going anywhere until you give me an answer." And to prove his point Bellamy sat back in his chair and folded his arms, mimicking her previous body language from the day before.

"I'm calling security." He heard the professor mutter behind him but he didn’t care, he was solely focused on Clarke who was visibly getting flustered at this point and had fixed him with harsh glare.

"I'm waiting."

"Okay!" She flung her hands in the air.

"So that's a yes?" Bellamy leaned forward.

"Yes!" Clarke shouted "Yes, I'll go on a date with you, but only if you leave right now."

Bellamy smiled like that cat that had got the cream. He stood up and reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Great," He handed the piece of paper to Clarke, "Here's my number, you pick when and where but make sure you text me. If you don’t, I’ll be here tomorrow."

"You're insufferable," she muttered.

"You love it, princess," He shot back with a wink.

He saw a blush creep up on her face.

"I look forward to hearing from you."

Feeling satisfied with the situation Bellamy turned on his heel and walked straight out the door, leaving a bewildered Clarke to stare after him in utter shock.

_Who was this guy?_

\--

"He WHAT?" Raven shrieked down the phone at her.

 

"I'm serious, Raven. It was the most embarrassing moment of my life," Clarke replied opening her car door. She placed her bag on the passenger seat and climbed in the car. "Professor Mills was sending me disappointed looks throughout the rest of the class, then she made me stay behind to give me lectures about the school policy and how this can never happen again."

"What did you say?" Raven enquired.

"Well obviously I assured her it wouldn't."

"So does that mean you're going to go on the date with him?"

"No! Don't be ridiculous," Clarke rolled her eyes.

"Why not?"

"What do you mean why not? He came and ambushed me in the middle of my class. It was creepy and stalkerish."

"I think it's kind of cute that he did that."

"Seriously Raven?"

"What? Yeah okay sure, it's a little bit creepy, but the fact that this guy went out of his way to find you and ask you on a date is kind of cute. How did he even know your class schedule?"

"I have a good idea," Clarke told her, a picture of Wells coming into her thoughts clearly. She had seen them all together at the bar so she knew they were friends, and she knew Wells had already told Bellamy her name. She made a mental note to text him again, once she got off the phone to Raven.

"Clarke, I think you should go," Raven interrupted her thoughts. "It will be good for you to get back out there. And this guy is clearly interested, so why not?"

"You know why," Clarke’s voice had hardened.

"Clarke...” Raven trailed off. "I'm not saying go and be in a relationship with someone else, I know you would feel like your betraying his memory-"

"I don't want too talk about this, Raven."

Clarke ran a shaky hand through her hair, her breathing beginning to pick up speed. She was getting really irritated with Raven always pushing her to date other people.

"Look," Raven said softly, "I get it, Clarke, I really do. I just think you should give this guy a chance and if doesn't work out, then so be it! At least you know you tried. Plus if you don't, he might turn back up in your class and that wouldn't look great."

"I know your right.  I'll think about okay?"

"Okay, I'll see you back at home?"

"Sure."

"Bye."

"Bye," Clarke ended the call and through her head back against the seat in a huff.

She knew Raven meant well she really did. It just sucked that no one seemed to understand how she felt about these things.  _Why couldn’t she just say she didn’t want to date and that’s the end of conversation? Why did everyone have to keep pushing? And Bellamy, God Bellamy.._

She was so angry at him for today. For turning up in her class and embarrassing her like that. I mean sure, Raven was right, it was a sweet gesture in sorts and he was hot. But his arrogance royally pissed her off.  _I mean who could be that conceited?_

She threw he phone onto the passenger seat angrily and it nudged her bag open so she could see the corners of a piece of paper sticking out. She reached over and pulled it out, once opening it she could see his messy scrawl of numbers written on it.

She didn't really know what to do about this situation, and that made Clarke even angrier because she wasn’t in control. She knew she would have to go on this date, Raven was again right when she said he would turn back up her class, he'd said so himself.

And then it hit her, a way to gain control of this situation again.

She would go on this date; she would give him what he wanted. But she didn’t have to make it easy for him.

With a smirk on her face, she reached back over to the chair and grabbed her phone. Hastily she tapped the numbers from the paper onto her screen and begin to write. 

-

"I'm in!" Bellamy grinned widely as he plopped himself down on the couch next to Murphy.

"With what?" Murphy glanced at Bellamy for a second before returning to flicking through the channels on the TV.

"With this," Bellamy passed over the phone he was holding to Murphy. Bellamy felt victorious, he wasn't sure that Clarke would have text him back when he left the College but he was too tired to even think about it. So he made his way home and fell into his bed, exhaustion taking over, needing to get some sleep before his shift started up again at 8. When he awoke the sun had gone down and the streetlights were the only source of light coming through his window illuminating his bedroom. He'd checked his phone first thing and sure enough there was a text from from Clarke.  

Murphy grabbed the phone and peered at what Bellamy was showing him.

**From: Clarke**

**Pick me up tomorrow at 7. 556 Washway Road, Polis.**

**Don’t be late.**

"The ice princess finally thawed," Murphy stated passing the phone back to Bellamy. He picked back up the remote and carried on aimlessly flicking through the channels, "Took you long enough."

"Like you can talk, how long has it been with Emori now? A year?"

Murphy gave up with the remote and instead got up to go towards the kitchen. "Yeah it's been a year, but I don't do girlfriends, you know that. Emori understands and likes our little arrangement."

"I'm sure she does," Bellamy replied leaning lazily back on the couch, a smile slipping back on his face. "Anyway the hard parts over now,"

He heard Murphy laugh from behind him.

"You think that was the hard part?" Bellamy side eyed him as he sat back down, beers in hand. He offered one to Bellamy who shook his head. "Dude, you've been getting girls for as long as I've known you, but this isn't like that."

This caught Bellamy's attention, who had now become intrigued in the conversation. He sat forward and stared at Murphy. "What do you mean?"

"You've never had to chase a girl, Bellamy," Murphy flipped the lid off of his drink and took a swig. "They always come to you; you've never had to put in the work."

"So?"

"So, you’ve done the chasing now and now you have her attention. The hard part, is keeping it."

"Have you seen me? That’s not hard."

Murphy snorted and threw the bottle top at him.

"I'm serious Bellamy; you have to make sure this date goes exceptionally well because if it doesn't, she’s got an excuse to not see you again and the bets off. Wells really got you with this one."

"We will see. Where is Wells anyway?"

"Got a function to go to with his dad or something, I don’t know. Rich people problems," Murphy shrugged and Bellamy laughed.

"Right, well I've got a night shift to get ready for, so I'll see you tomorrow."

"Ight man"

With that Bellamy left the room to go get changed ready for his shift. Taking the stairs two a time he came to a stop outside his room when he realised his door was slightly open. Something he never did, he always closed the door. Feeling confused, he walked slowly to the door, pushed it open and stepped inside. His room wasn't messy or cluttered, he was a tidy person, well he had to be with the amount of girls he had round. There was usually a girl in here every other night, which was why it wasn't a surprise to see one in his room now.

"Echo," He breathed staring at the fairly pretty girl lay on his bed. "What are you doing in here?"

"I came to see you," She purred.

"Wearing that?" He let his eyes roam down to her clothes, or lack of them. She wore a skimpy black bra and panties that left little to the imagination and a silky robe which lay open. He felt a stir in his pants and he groaned. Echo was hot, there was no doubt about that, but he'd been there and done that with her. He wasn’t feeling up to going there again.

"You can't be in here," He groaned.

"Why not?" She pouted and got up from the bed. "We've had some good times in here, Bellamy."

He ran a hand through his hair, "The word being had, Echo."

She sauntered over to him, until she was stood right in front of him. She peeked at him from under her lashes and ran a finger from his shoulder down his chest, "Don't be like that."

Her hand continued lower and Bellamy felt the urge to let her continue but he knew he couldn't, so he grabbed her hand a little forcefully and stopped her in her tracks. "I've got to get ready for work."

"Oh come on," She moaned, "I'm sure you can make time, you used to make loads of time for me."

She was right; he had once upon a time ago.

"Well I don't have time right now; I've got to leave soon."

"Bellamy...” She whispered sexily and used her other hand to trail a finger down his arm.

"I'm serious Echo, you need to leave," His voice had hardened now and to prove his point he moved away from her, with great effort, and walked to wards the door, opening it even wider and giving her a pointed look.

"Fine," She stuck her bottom lip out stubbornly. "I'll come see you after work."

"Please don't," He sighed.

Her eyebrows scrunched up and she stamped her foot in huff before brushing past him to go back to her room at the end of the hall. Bellamy closed the door behind her and lent against it, an obvious situation happening in his pants. He pulled at his hair. "Fuck!"

It was a bad idea letting Echo live with him and Murphy, but they hadn't thought so at the time. They were young and stupid, still both of them things now, just a little wiser. They thought having a girl live with them would be a great friends with benefits type scenario depending on who she liked. Having someone who lived with you, who you constantly hook up with whenever you wanted? that shit was great and as it turned out, it was Bellamy who was her type.

And they did hook up on and off, for about a year. They'd both stated that it was no strings attached and that it wouldn't mean anything, and that was great until it started to mean something to her. She'd become too emotionally invested in Bellamy, telling him who he could talk to and who he could hang out with. The amount of time shit had hit the fan when he brought girls home was unbelievable, she'd scare them all away. So Bellamy had to get out of that situation and he had ended things, which didn’t go down so well with her. But he couldn't kick her out, she had nowhere to go, she'd lived in Azgeda and that neighbourhood was a hell of a lot rougher than Arkadia. He couldn’t expect her to go back there, so he had to deal with a messy breakup from a relationship he was never in.

Then he made his rules.

Never hook up with the same girl twice.

That way nobody could get invested in him, which in turn meant nobody got hurt.

Even not hooking up with Echo didn’t deter her. She still tried at every opportunity to get him back and it was a pain in the ass, because Bellamy could only hold out for so long. He was human and a hot girl was constantly throwing herself at him. What was he supposed to do? He shook his head and headed for the bathroom to take a cold shower.

He had to try and keep one girls attention and get another girls attention off of him.

_When did his life get so complicated?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW! Echo? Really? Hang in there though. I PROMISE there is a point to having her in the story haha.


	3. Chapter 3

Bellamy parked his truck outside Clarke’s house and checked his watch, it read 18:55. He had a couple of minutes to kill so he took a deep breath and collected his thoughts. He’d been pretty nervous all day as the time approached for him to leave. He’d even snapped at Murphy a few times over the littlest things, he wasn’t sure what had got him so nervous because he never usually felt this way about going out with girls. He was usually over confident and prepared, but maybe that was it. The fact that he wasn’t prepared; he had no clue where it was they were going so it wasn’t like he could pull out his usual moves. 

_It’s going to be fine;_ he thought to himself, _just be your normal charming self and she’ll be home with you in no time._

He ran a hand through his hair and looked at his surroundings.

He already knew that Polis was a pretty nice place, he driven Octavia down here enough times to know that, but he had only really ever been into the town square. On the drive down here he had to go down a lot of back roads to get to Clarke’s house so he got to see how a lot of the other half lived and he was impressed. Seeing the houses was a whole different ball game than seeing the town, by the looks of them he guessed that he could fit his whole house in one of their garages, they were huge.

Clarke’s house on the other hand wasn’t as big or as extravagant as the other houses, but it was still nice and looked homely with flowers littering the path up to her door. She lived in a gated area, which was no surprise to Bellamy, and the security guard gave him a few funny looks as he approached the gate. He had told him he was here to see Clarke but he had looked doubtful and made Bellamy wait until he had phoned Clarke to check he was the telling the truth. Begrudgingly the security guard let him pass; still giving him a funny look, so Bellamy flashed him a toothy grin and drove through the gates.

And finally he was there, and Clarke would know he was from the security guard, so he took another deep breath to calm his nerves and got out of his truck.

Once at the door he realised there wasn’t a knocker, instead on the side next to the door was an intercom system, which he guessed was placed on all the houses in the area as a measure of extra security. Without hesitation, he pressed the button and waited.

A few seconds later, he heard her voice.

“Bellamy?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” He replied, his voice shaking slightly.

_What the fuck is wrong with me?_ He thought and coughed to clear his throat.

“I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Okay, I’ll wait at the end of the path,” His voice came out much clearer this time and he smiled.

He moved back down towards his truck and lent his back against it, pulling his phone out in the process. He figured he’d play a few games on it whilst he waited, but time seemed to slowly tick by.

A minute, like she had said, slowly turn into two, then three, then five, until suddenly the next time he checked a full twenty minutes had gone by. She still hadn’t come down.  

_What’s taking her so long?_ He thought, She _told me not be late, yet here I am still waiting for her._

He thought about going to press the buzzer again, but then he thought that it might make him look too eager, and he definitely wasn’t.

_But what if something’s happened?_ The thought creeped in and he felt his stomach drop. Worry outweighing his arrogance, he walked back up Clarke’s path a pressed the button on the intercom system.

\--

BBBZZZ

The noise vibrated around the silent house and she jumped a little even though she was expecting it. She had gotten lost in her sketchpad so when the buzzer sounded she’d smudged a some of her drawing, she looked down and scowled at the paper. She grabbed the eraser from the table on the side next to her and began erasing the mistake when the sound came again, more urgent this time.

Rolling her eyes, she moved her things and placed them back on the table, and made her way over to the intercom system.

“Who is it?” She called into it, feigning confusion, even though she knew exactly who it was.

There was silence on the other end and she smiled.

“Hello?” She called again.

“It’s Bellamy,” The voice finally came back through with a hard edge to it.

“Oh yeah!” She cried stupidly.

“Are you okay?”

She furrowed her eyebrows.

“What? Yeah I’m fine. I was just finishing getting ready; I’m on my way down.”

“Right,” She heard his short reply.

_Good,_ Clarke thought and grinned. _If he’s already pissed at me now, he might cancel this date before we even get there._

She had decided when she text Bellamy that she would go on a date with him, that she wouldn’t make it easy for him. So when he had buzzed the first time, Clarke had sat back down in her chair and started sketching knowing it would make a bad first impression. She was going to make this date as difficult as possible so he wouldn’t want to see her again.  Moving away from the intercom system, she grabbed her phone and purse and made her to the front door, pulling it open.

Her eyes searched for Bellamy and upon finding him her breathing slowed.

_Damn!_ She thought.

She couldn’t deny that Bellamy was good looking, because he was, and she had know this fact since their first encounter. As much as she didn’t want to be, she couldn’t help but be attracted to him, he was gorgeous. His curly black hair sat messily on his head, giving him the ‘I just rolled out of bed’ look. He had chocolate brown eyes that she had found herself getting lost in one too many times. He had even made an effort tonight – not that he didn’t look hot every other time -with dark wash jeans and a plain white top, paired with a black blazer jacket. He looked good, but she figured he already knew that.  

Knowing he had made an effort for their date, a feeling of guilt swarmed around her, knowing that she hadn’t done the same. But then she shook her head and remembered that she hadn’t wanted to impress him and pushed the feeling of guilt away.

She saw Bellamy catch site of her and he smiled, his eyes beginning to roam of over her. Once catching site of her clothes, his smile turned into a confused stare and she smirked triumphantly getting the reaction she had wanted from him.

“I’m sorry,” She called out to him and brought his attention back to her face, “The curlers took ages heating up.”

It was a lame excuse and he knew she was lying.

“its fine,” He mumbled back, “You look… nice.”

Now she knew he was lying, because she looked anything but nice. She had tried hard to make it look like she had put in no effort at all. She hadn’t washed her hair in two days and it hung in a limp lose ponytail down her back. She work dark black skinny jeans and an old holey Nirvana t-shirt, that she was sure had a ketchup stain on from her lunch earlier. She had paired this look with her old battered converse and she had washed her face clean, not putting on an ounce of make-up.

Her mother would have scolded her for dressing like this with a boy around; she would have said that by dressing like this she would scare the poor boy away. 

But that had been exactly her intentions.

“Thanks,” She flashed him a toothy smile, “You ready to go?”

“I’m always ready,” He retorted and winked at her.

She pulled herself out of her doorway and locked it behind her, ignoring Bellamy’s comment.

“We’re going to take my car,” She told him and motioned her head for him to follower her, “I’ll drop you back at mine so you can get yours later.”

Once they were seated in the car, she put the key into the ignition and started the car up.

“So where is it you’re taking me?” Bellamy asked curiously.

“It’s a surprise,” She replied simply, pressing her foot on the pedal and moving the car onto the road.

“I like surprises,” He grinned at her but she didn’t acknowledge him.

“How was you weekend?” He tried again.

“Good.”

“What did you do?”

“Not much.”

“Okay...” He trialed off giving her a weird look, “How was college?”

“Fine.”

“What about your Professor? How was she when I left that day?”

“That wasn’t funny Bellamy,” She said in a huff, “You could have got me kicked out of College.”

It wasn’t the reaction he wanted from her, but it was better than the one word answers she had previously been giving him so he decided to roll with it.

“Come on, it was a little funny. Admit it,” He taunted cheekily.

At the time she hadn’t found it the least bit funny, in fact she was positively seething with Bellamy when she had left the class. But the next day chatting to Raven about it, she had begun to see the funny side, though she would never admit it too him.

“No, it wasn’t.”

“Not even a tiny bit funny?”

“No,” she shook her head.

“Not even when her face turned bright red like a tomato?”

She felt her lips turn up at the memory.

“Or when her voice went really high pitched after I talked back to her?” He carried on.

She was struggling to keep a straight face, so she bit the inside of her lip.

“Come on Clarke! I know you want to laugh,” He teased and she couldn’t help but laugh at it.

“Okay, it was funny,” She agreed and let out another laugh, “Her head looked like it was going to explode when she chastised me after class.”

She sneaked a glance at Bellamy who was now laughing at the thought of Clarke getting chastised. She realised how much more handsome he looked when he smiled, and she realised she hadn’t really had the opportunity to see it before.

_Focus Clarke,_ She thought suddenly and the smile instantly dropped off of her face.

“We will be there soon,” She said quickly and reached to turn the radio on, the music blasting through the speakers bringing the conversation to an abrupt end.

-

They had been driving for about 15 minutes now in silence and Bellamy looked at Clarke nervously.

_Where is she taking me?_  He thought. He wasn’t sure where they were because she had taken the back roads like he had to get to her place, the difference was he had a satnav telling him where to go, she was from round here so she knew the roads like the back of her hand.

He thought about their earlier conversation and he couldn’t figure out why she was acting so cold towards him. He had turned up on time like she had asked, he’d flashed her his famous smile and made her laugh, but none of it seemed to be working. It was like he had no effect on her what so ever and that wasn’t something he was accustomed too. Most the girls he came into contact with could never get enough off him, they were always doing something to catch his attention, not the other way round.

He sighed frustrated and ran a hand through his hair, something he had noticed he’d been doing a lot since he met Clarke.

They were coming up to a sign that Bellamy struggled to read because it was covered in red graffiti, but he knew where he was without needing to read it.

He glanced back at Clarke uneasily and said, “Are you sure we’re going to the right place?”

Clarke furrowed her eyebrows and glanced at him in confusion, before looking back at the road.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve just gone past the sign for Azgeda. Did you make a wrong turn?”

She shot him a smile, “Yeah we're in the right place. I found this cute little bar on google that serves food, so I thought we would go there. It had loads of great reviews on the site”

_I’m sure it does,_ He thought sarcastically. No where in Azgeda had good reviews, because no one came here. It wasn’t a nice place to spend your time and the people were different here, always causing trouble. Most of the police reports they would see on the news would be about something that had happened in Azgeda or were caused by the residents from Azgeda. They didn’t really like outsiders, but they were mostly tolerant of them as long they weren’t from Polis. They hated people from there.

“They’re not really that welcoming towards people from Polis,” Bellamy said thinking he should tell her this fact.

“I heard that,” She muttered, “But to be honest, it’s not really like I look like I’m from Polis tonight. I think we’ll be fine.”

She gestured down towards her outfit and Bellamy looked down.

Her outfit was another thing that had surprised Bellamy. Most girls he met up with usually tried really hard to impress him and usually wore little to no clothes to catch his eye, but Clarke hadn’t done that. She looked comfortable and even though her hair was pulled back and he could tell she wasn't wearing makeup, to him she looked even more beautiful.

_If that was even possible,_ The thought came abruptly.

“Yeah, Okay.” He agreed and looked back out the window.

It didn’t take them long to reach Clarkes destination and she pulled up to a stop right outside it. It was a small building with a neon light flashing in the window with the word ICE NATION written on it.

_It looks a lot better than the rest of the town does,_ He thought, thinking back to some of the other buildings he’d just seen. Most were half falling down and some of the windows had been smashed and were now bordered up. Litter covered the sidewalks and he was sure he’d seen a bin on fire on one of the streets they passed, but he didn’t let it phase him.

Instead he unbuckled his seat belt and climbed out the car, making his way round to her side to open the door for her. She smiled gratefully at him, climbed out and then she locked the car and they proceeded to walk inside the building.

-                              

Clarke looked at the table in disgust.

Bits of left over food and beer stains covered most of it and it didn’t look like it had been cleaned in about a week, matter of fact, neither did the whole bar.  Inside the place was small, with only a few table and chairs for dining and a pool table resided in the far corner which took up most of the space. From what Clarke could see it had no use being there as most of the balls were missing and a half broken cue lay on top of it. On the other side of the room was a small bar with three stools placed at the front of it, two of them already occupied.

 The men occupying the seats were big in stature and had tattoos all over their arms, they were the kind of people you would assume to see in a biker bar. They had looked over when they had walked in, one of the men even winked at Clarke which made her skin crawl. But for the most part they didn’t really pay attention to them or signal that they knew they were from out of town, so Clarke took a seat at one of the empty tables whilst Bellamy went to the bar to order drinks.

But staring back at the table, Clarke felt like she wanted to go home. She wasn’t lying earlier when she had told Bellamy she had found this place on google. She had, the only difference being was that she had typed ‘Worst places to eat in Azgeda’ and this was the first one that popped up. On further inspection, she also found that it didn’t have one good review and at the time she had thought it was perfect, but now she was mentally kicking herself.

She had chose this slightly dangerous and downright dirty bar to put Bellamy off, but she was suffering in the process. What she intended Bellamy to feel about this place, she too herself was now feeling it.

Bellamy returned and placed a drink in front of her and then sat down opposite her with his own, pulling out two menus from under his arm and placing them on the table.

“Vodka Tonic for the lady,” He grinned and she looked down at the drink in surprise.

That was her favourite drink, she never ordered anything else when she went out.

“How did you know that I like Vodka Tonic?” She asked and scrunched up her eyebrows.

“I’m an observant guy,” He smirked and leaned forward on the table cockily.

She gave him a little smile, feeling caught off guard and not for the first time. Bellamy seemed to that a lot to her and usually she wasn’t sure if she liked it, but tonight she did. Though it didn’t matter how much he surprised her, she was firm in her ways and she knew what her plan was, she knew she had to stick to it.

“I’ll be back in minute,” Bellamy told her and left the table.

She picked up her cup and inspected it, making sure it was clean, before taking a sip from it.

_One word answers, Be flippant and vague and **don’t** smile_ , she chanted in her head.

Bellamy came back armed with some blue roll and some spray.

“Pick up your drink,” He ordered and she complied.

He sprayed the liquid on the table and then used the blue roll to remove all the bits of food and beer stairs, then dried it with another piece.

She raised her eyebrows, once again surprised by him.

“Domesticated are we?” She teased forgetting her chants.

“Only for you princess,” He winked and finished up. He took the stuff back to the bar and the regained his seat in front of her.

She scowled at his use of words.

“You picked a real nice place here,” He said sarcastically and laughed.

“It’s okay,” She shrugged and picked up her drink.

“Well I suppose I brighten up the place,” He smirked and she almost choked on her drink.

“Cocky,” She muttered.

“So tell me about yourself Clarke,” Bellamy smiled, looking straight at her.

“Not much to tell.”

“I’m sure that’s not true, what are your interests?”

_Be vague,_ she reminded herself.

“Not much.”

“Okay, well do you have any siblings?”

“No.”

Bellamy was beginning to feel frustrated with her, she had been acting like this on the car ride up here and he had only managed to get a few glimpses of what he would call ‘the real her’. But apart from that she had given him nothing to work with. Trying a different tactic he asked, “Should we order some food?”

“I’m not hungry,” She muttered back to him.

Bellamy sighed and tried once more, “Okay, so what do you do for fun?”

She fidgeted uncomfortably; feeling like the spotlight was on her.

_Why is he so interested in me?_

“Actually, I’m feeling quite hungry now,” She ignored him and picked up the Menus.

And that was how she was with him for the next hour. One minute she didn’t want to eat any food, the next she did. Then she didn’t like anything on the menu, but then suddenly she found something that was tolerable. When Bellamy tried to make conversation with her, she gave him one word answers or totally ignored him. When the food come out she continuously whined about how disgusting it looked and how she didn’t want to eat it, then for the duration of the meal she just picked at it and moaned.

Bellamy was beyond frustrated with her at this point, he was angry with her. He didn’t understand what her problem was, and even though Murphy had told him he needed this date to go well, he really couldn’t have given a shit in that moment. All he wanted to do was get the fuck out of there.

“I’m done!” He growled and slammed his fork down on the plate, when she again moaned about the state of the food, “Why are you being so damn difficult?”

Clarke looked up at him with wide eyes, but she didn’t look shocked.

**_“Wells really got you with this one.”_ **

**_“I don’t think you can do this Bellamy, I really don’t.”_ **

The words of his best friends came back to him, and it clicked for Bellamy. It clicked for her and for them.

_Do they both know something I don’t about her,_ He thought thinking back to the previous conversations with them.

It clicked for Bellamy that Clarke was also doing this on purpose.

_That’s why she had picked this place, when it was clear as day that she had never stepped foot in Azgeda before. That's why she's acting like this._

He leaned back in his chair, feeling angry at both his friends and Clarke.

“Cut the bullshit, Clarke,” He told her, staring right at her, this time she did look shocked.

“Excuse me?” She said taken aback.

“You heard me, cut the bullshit, I know what you’re trying to do and it isn’t going to work.”

If this was any other girl, Bellamy would have made his excuses and left. But he couldn’t do that with that her, he needed to win this bet and to do so he needed to stay here and deal with the crap she was throwing at him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking-“

“Will you stop being such a stuck up bitch for one second and actually give me a chance?” He said his voice getting louder.

Clarke froze and stared at him in utter disbelief.

“What did you just call me?” She said in a low voice.

“Look I know that was a bit harsh, but you’re acting like a child, like you’re above being here with me.”

“How dare you,” Clarke whispered venomously, anger taking over.

_Fuck!_ He thought, _this is not going how I wanted it too._

“Why did you bring me here Clarke? Why go through all this effort if you didn’t even want to go on a date with me?” He looked at her face, anger evident by the way she scrunched up her nose and squinted her eyes, “You could of told me you didn’t want to be here, instead of making me stand outside your house for twenty minutes waiting for you, like an idiot!”

“If I had wanted to be here with you Bellamy, I would have gave you my number the first time you asked,” She stood up in a huff, “But I didn’t! Then you came waltzing into my class like you were hot shit and basically blackmailed me into coming on this date!” 

“I wouldn’t call it blackmail,” He muttered, “Besides, you could have said no.”

“I did!” She threw her hands up in the air.

“Well I didn’t think you were being serious, I mean..” He trailed off and pointed to himself in a _‘look at me’_ gesture, “Most girls would kill to go out with me.”

Clarke threw he head back and laughed bitterly, “Here we go again.”

“What?” Bellamy looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“You’re such a conceited ass!” She shouted.

“Me?” Bellamy stood up too, feeling defensive, “You’re a cold hearted bitch!”

“Do you know what you do Bellamy?” She asked but didn’t give him a chance to answer, “You walk around like you’re the most amazing person to ever exist and you pretend like everyone is in love with you. But deep down, you’re just an insecure little boy who has no idea what love is because you’ve never experienced it. You’re scared to let someone love you –the real you- because you think when they found out who the real you is they will just walk away.”

Clarke was positively seething at this point, but so was Bellamy. This date hadn’t gone the way either of them had expected it too and now both of them were losing control of their emotions.

“You’ve got me all figured out haven’t you princess?” He smiled wryly, “But what about you?”

“What about me?” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Did someone break your heart? Is that why you are the way you are Clarke?” His voice had gotten low and Clarke felt herself stiffen at the words, “You act so tough. You put up all these walls and you don’t let anyone in, you act like it’s because you’re not interested but I know that’s not the reason you do it. You do it because your scared Clarke, you’re so scared to open yourself up to someone because you’re terrified of getting your heart broken. You’re terrified of being hurt but what you’re really doing in the process, is hurting yourself.”

Clarke's breathing had become heavy and her hands had started to shake. She had never felt anger like this before but she wasn’t sure if what she was angry about was because of what he had said, or because what he had said was right. She felt shaken.

_Who the fuck was he to analyse me?_ Her mind screamed at her.

They were both staring at each other, neither backing down. Clarke's anger had gotten to breaking point after he had spoken and she didn’t know how to handle or get rid of it. So she did the only thing she could think of.

“Now, now” A deep voice came from behind Bellamy, “You guys need to-“

He cut off from what he saying because as he was walking into their conversation, Clarke had reached down, picked up her drink, and threw it at Bellamy. Only it didn’t hit Bellamy like she had intended it too, the man talking had gotten in the way and was now wearing the contents of her drink. His clothes now wet, were sticking to his skin uncomfortably.

Both Bellamy and Clarke stared at the man in shock, now recognising him as one of the men sat at the bar earlier. The man looked down at his now soaked clothes.

“I am so sorry!” Clarke instantly apologised, hold her hands up in a defensive gesture.

They guy looked back up at her slowly and grimaced, “Who the fuck do you think you are missy?”

Clarke felt her throat dry up and a slight tremor ripped its way through her body.

“It was an accident,” She said meekly, “I didn’t mean for it to go over you.”

“You shouldn’t being throwing them in the first place!” He growled and took a step towards her.

Bellamy instantly seeing this, stepped out from in front of his chair and moved himself in front of Clarke, blocking her from him.

“She said she was sorry,” He said to man irritated, “So leave.”

The guy snarled at him, “And who are you, her bodyguard?”

“No, I’m her date.”

Clarke backed up and felt the chair behind her hit her legs. She searched desperately for someone to help and caught the attention of the man who had served Bellamy behind the bar. He gave her a blank stare and returned back to cleaning the glasses, like this sort of thing happened all the time. The man’s friend who he had been sat with earlier was no longer in sight, which meant they were on their own.

“Well you should tell your date,” He retorted back staring her dead in the eye, “That her drink belongs on the table.”

“I think she gets the message.”

He didn’t seem to hear Bellamy though because he was still staring straight at her with an evil glint in his eye. Without warning he suddenly made a move to go round Bellamy and come towards her. She felt her heart drop and luckily for her, Bellamy once again blocked his path.

If she didn’t feel so terrified she might have found it hilarious with how they were in each others faces, the height different obvious as the guy towered over Bellamy.

“I would advise you to back the fuck off!” Bellamy said

“And what are you going to do if I don’t?” The guy sneered back, looking down at him.

“You know exactly what will happen if you make one more move towards her,” he replied “And sure, you may kick my ass, but is a spilt drink really worth spending a night in a cell for?”

It didn’t seem like a threat, but it was implied.  

The guy didn’t look as if he were going to back down, but he did eventually after thinking about what Bellamy had said. With a shove on Bellamy’s shoulder, he walked straight past them back towards the bar, his eyes unwavering as he stared at her.

“Let’s go,” She heard Bellamy whisper down her ear urgently, and he slipped his hand in hers and led her out the bar.

She let herself be led in a daze, a mix of different emotions starting to swallow her. He led her back to the car and opened the door for her to get in, she did. He jogged round to the other side and climbed in himself, out of the corner of her eye she seen him throw her bag into the backseat.

After a few minutes of silence he asked, “Are you okay?”

_Was I okay?_ She thought, but she wasn’t sure exactly what she was feeling.

She and Bellamy stared at each other for a few seconds and Clarke felt a bubble of laughter begin building up. She couldn’t help it and she didn’t know why the situation was suddenly so hilarious to her but it was, and the she started laughing manically. Her laugh so infectious made Bellamy start to crack up too, the sound echoing around the silent car.

“You nearly got me killed,” He said in between breaths.

“You nearly got me kicked out of College, so I’d say we were even,” She giggled.

They both quietened down after a few minutes, both breathing heavily as the laughter wore off and the seriousness of the situation set in, both went completely silent as they became immersed in their own thoughts.

“I’m sorry,” Bellamy heared her small voice fill the silence and he looked at her, “I shouldn’t have said what I said back there.”

“I’m sorry too,” He replied genuinely and looked down guiltily at himself, “Tonight didn’t exactly go as I wanted it too. Although by the looks of things it went exactly how you wanted it too.”

Clarke smiled sadly at that, not feeling as triumphant as she thought she would have felt by the end of the night.

“Look Clarke,” Bellamy continued, “I like you, a lot. Personally I think you should give me another chance.”

Her head snapped up to look at him, “But-“

“Hold on, hear me out,” He interrupted, “I want to take you somewhere now, but you have to promise to actually give me a chance this time. So that means no more blowing me off, no more one word answers. An actual chance, and at the end of date when I drop you off, it’s your choice if you want to see me again. If you do then great, but if you don’t, then I promise you I won’t contact you again and I’ll leave you alone.” 

She didn’t know why, but she actually felt relieved to hear him say he wanted to try again. Maybe it was because she realised she had in fact been a royal bitch to him all night, or maybe it was because she genuinely wanted to get to know more about him. She wasn’t sure, but what she was sure of though, was that she wanted to go with him.

“Okay,” She grinned, “But you have to promise not to act so arrogant for the rest of the night.”

“Deal,” He nodded eagerly, “I’m driving though.”

“I’m not dressed properly,” She muttered and blushed.

“Trust me, where were going, what your wearing is fine.”

He threw her a smile and then started up the car, determined to get them both the hell out of there.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the late update! I've been super busy and this chapter was super long when i wrote it that I've had to re-edit it and split it into two chapters. So the next one will be a continuation of this one. I'll try and have that one put up as soon as I can.   
> Once again thankyou so much for all the comments and kudos.   
> Hope you liked this chapter. :) Xx


	4. Chapter 4

It took them a while to get there but eventually they did, the car ride was silent but not uncomfortably so. Both of them just sat and listened to the radio, wrapped up in their own thoughts for the duration of the car ride. Both of them coming to terms with the events of the already fun filled night.

Clarke was more into her thoughts than Bellamy was, her actions had almost gotten Bellamy into a fight and that had not been her intention at all. She just wanted the date to be a bit difficult for him, difficult enough that he wouldn’t have wanted a second date. But she knew she did it more for herself than anybody else. She wasn’t ready to date, or at least she had thought she wasn’t, but it had been two years since the accident, and maybe it was about time she started to at least try to find someone new. Whether that could have been Bellamy, she wasn’t sure.

 _Maybe,_ She thought, _It’s worth giving him a chance and seeing how it makes me feel afterwards._

She brushed away any negative thoughts she had, which she would usually let take over her brain and convince her not to go on these types of things.

“We’re here,” She heard Bellamy say bringing her out of her thoughts.

She looked out the window at her surroundings and found that she had no idea where she was, she had never been here before.

She knew they were back in Arkadia because she had seen the welcome sign a while back, but when she looked out the window she didn’t see the usual crowds or buildings she was accustomed to when she was there. What she saw was pretty much nothing.

There were fields upon fields with some large huts spaced out on them, there wasn’t any sign of animals just a lot of empty space. Bellamy continued driving down the long narrow road, she could see boards were put up around the fields but she couldn’t make out what was on them as it wasn’t very well lit out there. There were haystacks left in different points around the field in all different sizes, but she wasn’t sure what they were for because she hadn’t seen any horses.

A terrified feeling engulfed her.

 _Maybe he’s brought me here to kill me,_ She panicked, _I mean it would make sense, I took him to Azgeda and almost got him killed and I was pretty much a huge bitch to him all night._

A multitude of negative thoughts hit her at once

_I don’t even know this guy and I just let him take me to some random place?_

_Stop it Clarke, think positive!_

_He’s going to take me onto one of those fields and kill me._

She couldn’t stop the thoughts from entering her mind. She could feel her palms begin to sweat and her heart picked up speed as they continued deeper down the narrow road. She moved her hand and tried to feel for her bag under her seat but she couldn’t find it, then she remembered Bellamy throwing it in the back seat, she realised she couldn’t just reach round to grab it or she would look suspicious.

She felt like she was about to have a full blown panic attack but before she did, Bellamy finally rolled the car to a stop in front of what she would call a barn. It had more lighting here than it did at the fields and she could see out the front window that at the other end of the barn was a small cabin, with a sign outside of it saying reception.

 _He won’t kill me if there are people around;_ she thought and breathed a sigh of relief.

Bellamy jumped out of the car and came round to her side, opening the door for her to get out. With shaky legs she scrambled out the seat but in doing so she tripped over her feet. She would have face planted on the floor if Bellamy’s hands hadn’t have grabbed her round the waist steadying her.

“Woah!” He shouted bringing her upright.

He peered down at her, hands still holding her waist and Clarke was all to aware of them. She wormed her way out of his hold quickly and muttered, “Thanks.”

She turned to walk around him but he grabbed her wrist lightly and spun her back round facing him.

“Are you okay?” He asked peering down at her again, worry etched all over his face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I’m fine,” She replied and looked away from him.

“No you’re not,” He removed his hand from her wrist and touched her chin lightly, pushing upwards so she was staring at him again.

_God those eyes.._

“Talk to me,” He pushed.

She felt her face heat up and slightly embarrassed she muttered, “I thought you had brought me here to kill me.”

He looked down at her dumbfounded for a minute before he spluttered, “What?”

“You heard me,” She looked back down at her feet in embarrassment.

“You thought I brought you here to kill you?,” He repeated.

It went silent for a few seconds before she heard Bellamy burst into laughter, her head snapped up to look at him and he was holding his stomach whilst he laughed

She let him laugh for a few seconds before her embarrassment engulfed her and then irritated by it she scowled at him, “Its not funny Bellamy!”

“I’m sorry,” He said, his laughter dying down, “But why on earth would you think that I was going to kill you?”

She threw her hands in the direction of the field, “Duh! You brought me to the middle of nowhere. That’s what serial killers usually do when they’re about to kill someone.”

“You took me to Azgeda, I didn’t think I was going to get killed there until you nearly made that happen!”

She scowled again, _God I’m going to get wrinkles early if I keep hanging around this asshole._

“Yeah, well I don’t really know that much about you,” She fired back lamely.

“Well, if you had bothered getting to know me tonight, you would,” He said pointedly.

It was a low blow, but she knew she deserved it after the way she had treated him.

“Can we just go do whatever it is we’re meant to be doing?” She tried to change the subject and Bellamy grinned at her in satisfaction.

“Sure, follow me.”

And with another laugh at her earlier statement, Bellamy began walking towards the reception Clarke following closely behind.

**\--**

There was a young woman in the reception area and she greeted them with a smile, Clarke still wasn’t really sure what it was they were doing here, so she took a seat in the waiting area and left Bellamy to talk to her. He chatted to her for a few minutes and then pulled out his wallet and handed her some money, the woman smiled and disappeared into a closet looking room.

“So why are we here?” Clarke asked.

“I figured we could let out some anger and have a bit of fun,” He smiled at her.

“Letting out anger how?”              

“It’s like paintballing, just without the guns. You get a bag and bucket full of balloons filled up with paint,” He explained and Clarkes eyes widened.

“You’re going to throw paint balloons at me?”

“What? You worried about your hair?”

 _Typical girl_ , Bellamy thought.

“No,” She laughed, “I just know I’m going to win.”

She said it with such confidence that Bellamy was surprised, he had expected her to moan about her hair getting paint in it or breaking a nail, most girls would. But as Clarke had previously stated and he was beginning to understand, she wasn’t like most girls.

“Here you go,” The woman at reception returned with two plain black overalls and two pairs of goggles.

“Thanks,” Bellamy said taking them from her and bringing one to Clarke.

She stood up and grabbed the overalls and then put them on over her own clothes.

“It’s too late to use the fields and you wouldn’t be able to see in the dark, so you’ll be in the barn,” She explained, “Rules are simple, keep your goggles on at all times, because if you don’t you may get paint in your eyes, and don’t aim for the face as the impact from a distance could hurt.”

“Got it,” Bellamy said buttoning up his overalls.

“If you would like to follow me,” She said once they both had their overalls on. She motioned for them to follow her and they did and she carried on explaining, “I’ll provide you with a bag that goes around your waist, it will be filled with balloons and there will be two buckets each placed around the barn so you can collect more balloons once the bag is empty. Once both the buckets are empty just place the overalls, goggles and bags into the buckets and you’re free to go.”

Clarke digested this information and the woman opened the doors to the barn.

Inside was pretty much like the outside fields, haystacks of different heights placed in different spots and boards which she could now see had pictures on them of different things like Ferris wheels or benches, it was so random that it made Clarke laughed. They were placed strategically around the barn and she guessed they were there so they could hide behind them so they wouldn’t get hit. There were other things like plastic made pipes stuck into the ground and see through plastic boards.

“Okay, so like I said you have until your balloons run out. Jim over there will be keeping an eye on things in the office, so if you need anything just give him a shout.” She pointed over to a man Clarke only just realised was there, he was placing the buckets down in each corner, “Have fun guys.”

The woman smiled, handed them their bags and walked out the door and Clarke watched as the man, Jim, placed the last bucket down and walked into a room in the far right corner that had see through glass looking into the office behind it.

“Health and safety,” Bellamy told her noticing her gaze.

She nodded and fastened the bag around her waist.

“How did you know about this place?” Clarke asked.

“I used to come up here with my sister when she was younger,” He smiled at the memory.

“You sound pretty close,” She stated.

“Yeah we are.”

“Where is she?”

“She went on holiday with her boyfriend,” He scowled at the thought, “She’s due back next week.”

“You don’t like her boyfriend?” She quiried picking up on the scowl and tone of voice when he mentioned the word ‘boyfriend’.

“Something like that,” He said vaguely, and even though she was intrigued by it she knew better than anyone to press him on it.

_I hate it when people push me to talk about things I don’t want to talk about._

Instead she wandered over to one of the buckets she saw Jim place down earlier, inside like the woman had said was paint balloons of all different colours. She opened her bag and saw the same, picking two out carefully afraid they would pop in her hands. Without warning she felt something hit her back, she moved her hand to feel the spot that was hit and was met with a cold liquid on her hand. She pulled her hand back to her face to examine it and and saw a blue liquid smeared on the palm of her hand. She whipped round to see Bellamy smirking at her and she threw him a dirty look.

“That’s not fair! You didn’t tell me you were ready!”

“I said I didn’t bring you here to kill you,” He laughed and she felt herself blush,” I never said anything about us having to play fair.”

And without warning again he threw another one at her, this one landing on her chest, splatters of yellow covering the black background.

“Hey!” She shouted feeling a little bit angry this time.

“Aw, are you angry princess?” He teased, “Come and get me back for it.”

_Princess? I’ll show him princess.._

She flopped to the floor in a huff and looked away from him feigning sadness. He looked back in confusion.

“Are you okay?”

She didn’t reply but she wobbled her lip as if she was about to cry.

 _Seriously?_ Bellamy thought, _I didn’t even throw it that hard!_

He walked over to her and crouched down in front of her, using his hand to bring her face round to stare at him. He had done that earlier in the night and Clarke couldn’t help but like the way it felt, the feel of his hands on her.

For him, it looked like her eyes had watered and he felt a bit sick because if she was crying then he must have hurt her and he hadn’t meant too.

“I’m really sorry if that hurt you,” He said quickly, “I didn’t mean to throw it that hard.”

She didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but a smile slowly made its way onto her face. A mischievous smile and Bellamy furrowed his brows not expecting it. Before he could say anything however, Clarke had reached up and slammed a balloon straight on the top of his head. He froze, more in shock than anything else and as he felt the cold liquid drip down his neck and face, the colour white covering his goggles and blocking his view.

_What the fuck?!_

He hadn’t been expecting that.

He heard a scuffle and then footsteps as Clarke got up and ran away from him laughing.

“That’s not fair!” He called out to her, “You played me! I genuinely thought you was upset.”

“We never said anything about playing fair, remember?” She shouted back laughing evily.

He laughed too and used his hands to wipe away the paint from his goggles getting most of paint off, It left a white smear on there but he could still see out of them. He stood and looked around for her but whilst he had been temporily blinded by the paint she had managed to find somewhere to hide.

 _She’s probably hiding behind one of the boards,_ He thought and armed himself with more balloons.

“I’m going to get you back for that, princess,” He shouted walking slowly around the barn. There were plenty of boards she could of hid behind so he figured he would work his way through each one. He crept slowly up to the one closest to him and slowed his breathing so she wouldn’t hear him coming. Upon reaching it he lay his back flat against it and tried to listen for her breathing on the side, but he couldn’t hear anything. He walked slowly to the edge of the board and without hesitation quickly jumped round the other side, his arm in the air with the balloon in hand ready for battle. She wasn’t there.

He let out a breath and moved onto the next one, repeating his actions but she wasn’t behind that one either. He stopped still and listened out for some sort of movement, but his ears couldn’t pick up anything.

He felt the balloon collide with him before he heard her.

“Gotcha!” She laughed and he spun around and caught sight of some of her hair disappearing behind the board furthest away from him.

“I know where you are Clarke!” He smirked.

He started walking towards the board she was hiding behind but he was still abit far away so she had enough time to dash out right infront of him, clearly making her way to another board. He launched a yellow balloon at her and it hit her on side, she laughed and jumped behind one of the haystacks, throwing one of her balloons with out looking. It missed him.

“You’re not very good at this!”

She peeked over the haystack and he could see her bright blue eyes staring at him, then she jumped up and threw another balloon that hit him squarely in the chest.

“Clearly,” She stated with a huge grin.

Bellamy felt transfixed by it, here with him now was the most he’d seen her smile, and she looked so beautiful when she did. It was a sight Bellamy knew he wanted to keep on seeing.

“Oh it’s on!” He shouted running over to her.      

Then the battle began and for the next hour or so Clarke spent her time ducking and weaving out of Bellamy’s grasp and he spent his time hiding away from her, but for the most part they were laughing. They were having fun.

Clarke didn’t remember the last time she had had this much fun, she found herself forgetting the events of the night and stresses of her daily life. She let herself have fun and be there in the moment, with him.

And she didn’t mind one bit.

Hiding behind another board, Clarke reached down to grab another balloon from her bag but there was only one left. Knowing he would have the same, she knew she had to make this one land. She walked to the end of the board and peeked out looking for him, he wasn’t in sight. She was about to move away from the board when a voice whispered in her ear, “Found you!”

She jumped and turned around to see Bellamy’s grinning face staring back at her.

 _How did he get here and I didn’t hear him coming?_ She thought and put the thought to the back of her mind. She needed an escape plan but there wasn’t much of one so she did the next best thing she could think of, she ran.   

She ran towards the haystack at the other end of the barn, her breaths coming out fast. She got close to it and was about to dive behind it when she felt his strong arms snake around her waist and pick her up.

“Bellamy!” She squeaked, “Put me down!”

He laughed and set her feet firmly on the ground, turning her to face him in the process.

“You can’t get away from me that easily,” He smiled down at her.

“I give up!” She surrendered.

“I do too, I’ve got no more balloons left,” He smiled down at her.

 _I must have miscalculated,_ she thought and smiled to herself.

Bellamy saw her smile and watched her shoulders relax obviously thinking she was in the clear. He reached his hand into his bag and pulled out his last balloon, moving his hand to hover over her head. Without thinking about it he smashed the balloon down on top her, the pink liquid mixing in with her hair and travelling down to her goggles.

“You lied!” She gasped feeling the coldness of the paint on her face.

His laughter roared around her, “I told you I would get you back!”

Not one to be defeated Clarke turned round to hide her bag from view and pulled out her last balloon, she hastily turned around to throw it him and backed up.

She couldn’t see as her goggles were covered in paint so she tried to pinpoint where he was by the sound of his laughter.

Bellamy’s laughter died down when he spotted the balloon in her hand, but he felt it bubble back up again when he saw the state of her. Not that he looked much better, both of them were covered in paint from head to toe and Clarke’s hair was matted down to her head because of it. She was walking backwards holding the balloon and trying to wipe the paint from her goggles so she could see. But in her haste she walked to far backwards and the back of her legs hit the back of the haystack causing her to fall backwards.

Bellamy raced forward and swung his arms out to catch her but he was too late. He peered down to find she had landed on more hay behind the stack with her hand still in the air. She had a bewildered look on her face and the hand that was still in the air was dripping with yellow paint, the balloon popping when she had fallen.

Bellamy couldn’t help it, he collapsed on the hay next to her in hysterics.

“This is not funny,” She said irritated by him.

He couldn’t stop laughing.

She moved her self into an upright position so she was lay next Bellamy and wiped her hands on her overalls, though it was pretty pointless because she was full of paint.

“You are something else Clarke,” Bellamy laughed and once he had calmed down they fell into a comfortable silence, trying to get their breaths back.

\--

“Art,” Clarke said into the silence and Bellamy looked down at her confused, “You asked me what I was studying in college earlier. I’m studying Art.”

“Oh,” He said simply, recalling their earlier conversation.

_Not that it was much of conversation, it was pretty much one sided._

“My mom’s a doctor and growing up she pushed me to be the same, but it wasn’t what I wanted for myself,” She continued. “She pushed for me to go to medical school, even applying to some schools behind my back.”

“How did she react when you told her you wouldn’t be going to those schools?” He inquired.

“Not very well,” She pushed a fallen piece of hair behind her ear, “Don’t get me wrong, I love helping people and it would have been a great career choice, but I love my art more. So I selfishly chose to do that instead of saving lives.”

He looked at her with intrigue, “It’s not selfish that you chose to do something you love Clarke.”

She looked up at him and he continued, “And art can save lives too, just maybe not in the same way. Art can influence the way someone thinks about something and it helps to start conversations, whether that be a conversation about change or the way they view something. I think that in itself is pretty amazing.”

“I never thought about it like that," She smiled at the thought, “What about you? What do you do?”

“At the moment I’m a security guard over at Trikru Tech,” He smiled back, “It’s not a bad job, just the hours can sometimes be long, but the pays good.”

“Trikru Tech? Well’s dad is an investor in that company.”

Bellamy smiled wryly at that, “How do you think I got the job? I didn’t exactly go to College.”

“You didn’t?”

“No,” He shook his head, “My mom wanted me to go, but we couldn’t exactly afford it. She wanted me to be a history teacher and at the time it was something I wanted to do..”

“And now?”

“Now I want to travel the world. I mean I can to College at later date if I want too and study then, but I want to be able to stand in front of those kids and know what I’m talking about because I’ve seen the history or because I've stood on the exact same spot that a battle occurred on.”

“That sounds amazing,” She breathed, “To be able to see the world, or in my case draw it.”

“Yeah,” He agreed looking out at the barn, imagining all the countries he would get to explore.

“When do you leave?” She asked and brought him out of his trance.

His head snapped round to look at her, “What do you mean?”

“It sounds like you’ve got your mind set on it, so when do you plan on leaving?”

He squirmed uncomfortably, knowing that if he succeeded with this bet he would be leaving in 3 months. He suddenly felt a little guilty.

“I don’t know yet, it won’t be for while,” He lied, “I’ve still got saving to do before that can happen.”

“Gets hard trying to save, you can’t help dipping into the savings after a while.”

“You're trying to save?” He asked shocked. “Can’t you ask your mom and dad?”

“Why because they’ve got money?” She said back angrily, at bit stung by the comment.

“I’m sorry,” He said quickly, voice filled with regret, “I shouldn’t assume.”

“It’s fine,” She let out a breath, “I can understand why you did. My mom's got money sure, but I don’t ask for it, I pay my own way. I’ve not got a full time job or anything, but people pay me for my artwork. They’ll want me sketch a portrait of them or landscapes, so it helps me get by.”

He should have known by now that she was nothing like he thought she would be.

“That’s pretty impressive,” He said with respect.

She shrugged.

“What about your dad, what does he do?” He broached the subject gently, picking up on the fact that she hadn’t mentioned him.

“He died a few years back,” She replied sadly, “Heart attack.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, “My mom died too when Octavia was born.”

“I’m sorry,” She repeated his earlier statement and she meant it. It sucked loosing a parent and it never really got easier. Especially for Clarke as not long after her dads death her mom moved on with someone new, that was something she couldn’t forgive.

“What about your dad?”

“Not on the scene, hasn’t been for a while.”

“That must have been hard on the both you.”

He shrugged, “We got by.”

He wasn’t used to talking like this with girls, there wasn’t much of a conversation to start with. A few compliments here and there and they would be back at his place. He wasn’t used to it, but he found that he liked it. It was refreshing.

“So what do you do fun?” She changed the subject. “Apart from thowing paintballs at people.”

He laughed, “Well if you stick around for another date, I’ll show you.”

She smiled warmly at him.

She wasn’t sure if she would see him again, but it had been a good date, and she had had a lot of fun she had to admit. It was something she would have to think about.

“Well we're out of balloons..”

“Yeah,” He felt abit disappointed that the date had now come to an end, “you ready to go?”

She nodded and Bellamy stood up holding his hands out to pull her up with him. They took off their overalls and threw them into the empty buckets along with their bags and goggles. They laughed when they looked at themselves, their clothes had been protected but their hands, hair and face were still covered in it.

“This is gonna take forever to get out of my hair,” Clarke giggled walking back up to car.

“Don’t wash it then,” Bellamy said opening the door for her, “It actually suits you.”

He wasn’t lying, the soft pink mixed into her blonde locks actually looked good.

“Yeah right,” She rolled her eyes at him and climbed into the car.

The car ride home was comfortable, and they were on a high from the activity. Clarke let herself laugh when he told a joke and opened up to him about her issues with her mom, he in return told her stories about when he was growing and it was nice.

When Bellamy pulled up at her front door, Clarke fell silent, unsure of what to say now that they were here.

“I meant what I said earlier,” He spoke first.

“About what?”

“About giving you time,” He said, “If you want to see me again, text or phone me, if you haven’t after two days I’ll get the hint and I’ll leave you alone.”

He was confident in saying that, because in his mind they had had a really good night and there was no way she wouldn’t want to see him again.

She smiled at him and after a beat said, “Okay.”

Bellamy felt awkward for the first time in his life around a girl. He would have kissed another girl by now and he so badly wanted to kiss Clarke, especially with the way she was smiling at him right now. But he knew she wasn’t that kind of girl and if he tried he might scare her away.

Instead he flashed her a toothy grin and said,”I hope I hear from you.”

Then he climbed out the car, opening the door for Clarke and once she was fully out the car he pulled her into a hug.

Clarke stood tense for a few seconds, unused to the physical contact, until she eased up and wrapped her arms around him returning the hug.

“I guess i'll see you then princess,” He mumbled pulling away.

“Goodnight Bellamy,” she replied and watched him get into his truck. He started the engine and with one last smile in her direction he drove off.

Clarke stared in the direction he had driven long after he’d disappeared from sight.

_What the fuck do I do now?_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of this chapter is loosely inspired by a scene in 10 things I hate about you.  
> Its a continuation of the date from the last chapter, hope you like it.


	5. Chapter 5

She didn’t call him.

At least not the day after their date, but Bellamy knew she could still call today.

The morning after the date he had woke up fine, not even really thinking about her calling because he was so sure he would. He went about his day how he usually would, running his errands, paying bills. He even went and hung out with Murphy and Wells, but as the time began to pass he began to feel nervous that she wouldn’t call.

He began to wonder if this was what the girls he slept with felt like, when he said he would call them and never did.

He began to check his phone obsessively; every time a text or call came through he would rush to pick it up, only it was never her.

_Why hasn’t she called yet?_

_They’d had a good time on the date, didn’t they?_

He was sure they had, she’d finally opened up to him and they had laughed. Laughing on a date equalled to having a good time, _right?_

The next day wasn’t so bad because he had the day shift at work to keep him busy, but whenever he could he sneaked a glance at his phone hoping to see her name there.

It wasn’t.

Being at home was the worst, he had nothing to take his mind off of it and he found himself scrolling down his contacts looking for her name. He thought about clicking on it and sending her a text, in fact it had took all of his willpower not to do it.

_What is wrong with me?_

He’d never been like this over a girl and he didn’t understand why he was suddenly so obsessed with her calling him back.

_It’s because you need her to win this bet._

The thought came and he held onto it, he needed to convince himself that the thought was exactly why he was acting the way he was.

Even if he didn’t fully believe it, because right now he was a mess.

He jumped into a cold shower to try and pull himself together, because if there was one thing people knew about Bellamy.

 It was that you would never catch him hung up on some girl.        

\--

Clarke found her self staring at her phone again, not for the first time that day. It lay on the cabinet beside her bed where it had remained untouched for a while now. She found her thoughts trailing off to Bellamy, wondering what he was doing and if he was waiting for her to call.

She wanted to kick herself for thinking about him, but she couldn't help it.

_There was just something about him._

The day after their date she was so sure she was going to call him. She pushed away all of her natural instincts that were screaming at her not to do it and she promised herself that before the night ended she would call him.

But as the time passed, her doubts set in and she let them.

_I'm not ready,_ She thought, _It's not the right time._

She knew deep down that she was lying to herself, she knew she was ready. It had been two years since her last relationship and she had had two years to let herself heal. She knew the real reason for not calling him was because of the guilt she felt. It consumed her whole and sometimes she felt like she couldn't breathe.

She felt that by calling Bellamy, she was betraying _him._ Betraying his memory and everything he had stood for. She had promised herself a long time ago that she would never love anyone like she loved him, and to keep that promise she created her walls. Walls to keep people like Bellamy out and for the most part she had succeeded.

But then she met Bellamy, and the walls had started to crumble. She had let herself open up to him on the date, a decision she was now regretting.

She had opened herself up to the possibility of trying to find love again, but the guilt overtook her.

So she didn't call him that night.

She didn't plan to call him the next day either, but when she sat down to sketch, something she did when she needed to distract herself. She found that she had absentmindedly began to draw him. She didn't know how she did it, or why, but she had.

 It wasn't finished, but when she looked down she knew it was of him with his strong jawline and the little scar above his lip.

She growled in frustration and threw the sketchpad and pencil on the bed.

_Get out of my head!_

A slight knock came on the bedroom door.

"Come in," She called and the door opened slightly to reveal her roommate Raven.

"You okay **?"** She asked, concern dripping from her voice.

"I don't know," She replied honestly.

Raven gave her a small smile and opened the door further to enter the room. She scanned the room and saw the sketchpad lay up side down on the bed, instantly knowing what was wrong. She was her best friend after all.

She moved over to where Clarke was sitting on the bed and sat down next to her.

"Talk to me," She stated and Clarke looked up at her.

"I don't know what to do," She moaned and flopped backwards on the bed.

"You mean you don’t know what to do about Bellamy?" Raven queried.

Clarke let out a puff or air. "He's gotten under my skin, and I don't know how to shake him."

"You like him," Raven stated the obvious and waited for Clarke to deny it, but she didn't. "It's not a bad thing if you like him Clarke. **"**

**"** It is! **"** She instantly sat up, "I feel like I'm betraying _him"_

"You're not betraying him Clarke, **"** Raven told her looking at her with sadness, "He loved you and he knew you loved him, he wouldn’t expect to you to hide yourself away forever. He would understand."

"But I feel like if I try and move on with somebody else, then that will mean that I never loved him at all," Her eyes had welledup and the tears were threatening to spill out. "I don't think that I could deal with feeling like that, because I did love him, with everything in me."

Raven leaned over to Clarke’s bedside table and grabbed her some tissues to wipe her eyes.

"You can have more than one great love in your lifetime," She said and handed the tissues over. "Falling in love with someone else, won't mean you didn't love him. You will never replace the kind of love that you felt for him because every love you feel will be different and that's okay."

"I don’t know" she sniffled and blew her nose.

She knew what Raven was trying to say to her but she couldn't seem to make the information stick. Her thoughts were everywhere and she was confused as hell.

"I just need a little bit of time to think about it," She continued and Raven understood that it was code for ‘she needed to be alone’.

 She gave her friend a quick hug and made her way to the door, she looked back at Clarke with a worried smile and before leaving the room added, "I’m just down the hall if you need anything."

Clarke nodded and watched her friend leave, the tears still falling heavily down her face. She looked back towards the phone and picked it up.

She moved into her contacts and scrolled down until she saw Bellamy’s name, her thumb hovering hesitantly over the green call button. After a few minutes of having an inner war with herself, she threw the phone on the bed in a huff and flopped back down on it, more confused than ever.

\--

When he looked at the clock on his phone that night and it said 00:00, he knew he was fucked.

He had promised her he would leave her alone if she didn't call and he knew he had to keep that promise.

_She's clearly not interested._

The thought hurt Bellamy’s pride and ego, he had never been rejected before and this girl had rejected him more times than he could count in the past few days. He didn't understand what it was he was doing wrong or why she didn't like him and that seriously pissed him off.

_What am I supposed to do now? I can’t call her, I’ll look desperate._

_But you are desperate!_ Another thought took over, and it was right, he was desperate. He needed her to get out this stupid town, without her he would be stuck here for a few more years.

_Fuck!_

He gripped his hair in anger and started pacing.

_I can’t turn up at her college again, I promised her I would stay away._ He thought.  _I need to see her because I need her to win this bet._

 

_I need help!_

 

His thoughts were jumbled; idea after idea spinning into focus but getting thrown to the side when he realised it wouldn't work. He stayed like that for a few seconds, working his brain to come up with a solution when suddenly one stuck. He picked up his phone and rang the one person he knew could help him pull this off.

"Bellamy," The Well's voice come through the other ended after a few rings, "What could possibly be so important that you had to ring me and half twelve at night?"

"Two words," He said, "Clarke Griffin."

\--

Clarke awoke groggily the next morning, the mixture of crying and stress thinking had sent her to sleep exhausted. She lay in bed for a seconds gathering her bearings and then sat up right quickly.

_what time is it?_ She thought and looked towards her alarm clock reading the numbers as 10:00 am.

_Fuck! I fell asleep._

She remembered she had meant to text Bellamy last night, but she was confused as hell and wasn’t sure what her move would be. The events of the day had caught up to her and she had just drifted off to sleep, clearly exhausted. He had only given her two days to let him know if she wanted to see him again and the two days had now passed.

_He’s probably already moved on to someone else,_ she thought bitterly and shook her head.

She found the prospect of not seeing Bellamy again a little daunting, but she told herself if she was meant to text him she wouldn’t have fell asleep. She put it down to fate and tried not to dwell on it longer. She searched the bed for her phone and found it under her the covers, nearly dead. On further inspection there was a notification on her home screen telling her she had a message.

Her heart picked up its pace, and she unlocked her phone and went straight to her messages.

It was from wells.

Disappointment instantly set in and then she opened the message.

**From: Wells.**

**Hey Griffin, I haven’t seen you in a while. Do you want to go get a coffee and catch up?**

She grew a little bit suspicious of the fact that he was texting her after she hadn't gotten back to Bellamy, but she shoved the thought away. Before she even met Bellamy she and Wells were close and used to do these kinds of things all time.

She typed back quickly.

**To: Wells**

**Sure, what time?**

His reply was instant.

**From: Wells.**

**I’ll pick you up in an hour.**

She sent back a quick okay and then climbed out of bed beginning to get ready for the day.

\---

"How do you know this is even going to work?" Murphy piped up from the passenger side of the parked truck.

"I don't," Bellamy replied checking the coffee shop he was parked near, was the right one on his phone. "But I’ve got try."

Happy he was in the right place, he laid his phone in his lap.

Murphy laughed, "Dude, you're not even dating this girl and she's already got you whipped."

Bellamy punched him in his arm.

"Hey!" Murphy laughed rubbing his arm.

"I'm not whipped," Bellamy said pointedly, "You know why I'm doing this."

"i know. So you can win this bet and get one over on wells" He said sarcastically.

"That’s not the only reason."

"I don’t get it," Murphy turned to stare at him, "What’s the point in this? Why don't you forget about the bet and just stick to your original plan of saving up?"

Bellamy thought about it for a second. Murphy was right, he could forget about this plan and wait to save. But it would take him at least another two years to be able to have the money he would need to go travelling. Wells offering him the money was too much of a good opportunity to pass up. He certainly didn't want to stay in this town and wait two years when he could be gone in three months. He explained these reasons to Murphy who nodded in understanding.

"Well how long do we have to wait here?"

Bellamy checked his time on his phone, 11:30 am.

"Not long, Clarke had to go to her workplace to get her shift Rota, Wells said he would text me when they’re round the corner. Once they do, we'll go in, order our coffee and act normal." He said the word normal a little louder than the rest, looking straight at Murphy.

"What?" He said with raised eyebrows. "I can act normal!"

"Yeah," Bellamy said rolling his eyes, "If you can act normal then I’m a fucking fish."

Murphy scowled at that and looked out the window.

"Has Emori got anything planned for Saturday?" Bellamy asked changing the subject. "I'm sorry we can't do anything, I've got the day shift."

"Don't worry about it," Murphy said nonchalantly, though he was a little bummed about it. "We’ve got bills to pay."

Bellamy smiled.

"I think she’s going to cook or some shit," Murphy continued, "Fuck knows, I don’t care along she gives me a good birthday present, if you know what I mean?"

He wiggled his eyebrows and Bellamy laughed.

"I'm sure she will."

He knew Emori wasn't cooking though; they had a surprise birthday party planned for him. They had been planning it for the past month and it was pretty much Bellamy's idea but Emori had gone all out on the planning and bringing it all to life, so he knew it was thanks to her. He did feel a little bad lying to Murphy about having to work, but he knew he would forgive him when he came home on Saturday to find a full blown party waiting for him.

A ding sound interrupted his thoughts and he picked up the phone.

**From: Wells.**

**Be there in 5.**

"Let’s go," Bellamy told murphy pocketing his wallet, keys and phone.

Murphy rubbed his hands together and looked at Bellamy with a strange look, "It's show time."

Bellamy laughed and punched him in the arm again, "Remember normal?"

"Yeah yeah," murphy wafted his hands at him and climbed out the car.

\--

The coffee shop was medium sized but you could already tell it was quite popular with the locals with the amount of people who was currently queuing up. There had to be at least 10 people already waiting in line before Bellamy and Murphy.

"Seriously bro?" Murphy complained.

"Shut up Murphy."

Murphy let out a huff like a little child and Bellamy ignored him pulling out his phone. His sister hadn't messaged him to check in so he was beginning to get a little worried. He typed out a text to her.

**To: Octavia**

**Hey O**

**Hope you're okay? I haven’t heard from you so I’m getting a little worried. Text or call me when you get this so I know everything’s good. Can't wait to see you Friday.**

**Bellamy x**

He pushed his phone back into his pocket and looked but up at the Que in front of them, it had dwindled down a bit now and they were about 7th in line to get to the check out. The people who had already paid were now waiting on the on the other side of the checkout for their drinks to be made. He moved his gaze to the door and let it linger for a few seconds hoping to catch sight of her, when movement in his peripheral caught his attention.

Murphy was jumping about like his pants were on fire.

"Will you stop?" Bellamy muttered between gritted teeth.

"I can’t” Murphy hopped on one foot, "I gotta pee really bad."

"Right now?"

Murphy nodded and Bellamy felt irritated, "Cant it wait?"

Murphy shook his head no and Bellamy already knew it was useless, he was hopping around like a maniac and people were throwing them funny looks.

"Fine," He said, "But hurry back Murphy, it looks better with you beside me."

Murphy threw him a tight smile then speedily made his way to the toilet nearly knocking someone over in the process. Bellamy shook his head part in amusement and part in annoyance. His phone dinged and he pulled it back out from his pocket.

**From Octavia:**

**Sorry Bell, got distracted. We're okay, just enjoying the last few days. How is everyone back home? Is Murphy still annoying the hell out of everyone?**

Bellamy snorted at that.

**See you Friday.**

**O x**

He scrunched up his nose in disgust not wanting to know what she meant by 'distracted'. Then he grunted in annoyance at the ‘we're okay’ part, he didn’t give a fuck if Lincoln was okay as long as he was taking care of O.

_I really hate that guy.._

"Bellamy?"

The voice pulled him out of his thoughts and he looked up to see Clarke staring at him in shock. His eyes roamed over her, taking in her obvious beauty when a cough signaled his attention. Wells was stood next to her, squinting his eyes at him weirdly and moving his head in a twitchy motion.

_What’s wrong with him? Is he on drugs?_

Bellamy upon seeing Clarke had totally forgotten why he was there. Well's coughed again and nodded his head in her direction, so he looked back at her.

Her blue eyes were staring at him, eyebrows drawn together.

_Shit!_

It was like a light bulb went off in his head and he suddenly remembered what he was meant to be doing.

"Clarke? Wells?" He exclaimed feigning his own confusion, "What are you guys doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," She said narrowing her eyes.

Bellamy closed the gap in the line of people as it got smaller and looked back towards her. "What do you mean?"

"Are you following me?" She asked, "Again?"

Bellamy puffed out his chest.

_Thanks a fucking lot Murphy._

Murphy was meant to be by his side so that when she walked in, it didn’t look exactly like this situation looked now.

 Like he was following her.

 I mean technically he was but she didn’t need to know those facts.

"Not everything’s about you Clarke," He replied back, "I'm here with a friend."

"Right," She said slowly looking for this said friend, knowing he was lying she turned on Wells. "Did you set this up Wells?"

"What? No!" He said desperately, "I didn't even know he was going to be here."

"Wells if you’re lying.." She trailed off and Bellamy could see her getting angry.

Before she was about to let loose on Wells, Murphy finally made his appearance.

"Sorry," He said shaking his hands, water flinging off of them. "Think I had too many red bulls this morning."

Bellamy let out a sigh of relief and looked over at Clarke cockily, who was now openly staring at him.

"Clarke," He called over to her, "This is Murphy, the friend I was telling you about."

He turned towards Murphy, "Murphy, this is Clarke."

Murphy sauntered over to and grabbed her hand, "So lovely to meet you Clarke, Bellamy has told me _a lot_ about you, in fact he hasn't shut up talking about you."

He winked at her and was about to kiss her hand when Bellamy grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him backwards.

"Shut up Murphy." He growled.

Clarke stifled a laugh, "Nice to meet you too."

She turned her eyes back to Bellamy and had the decency to look sheepish from her earlier accusations. "I'm sorry" She stated both to him and to Wells.

"Don't worry about it," He shrugged her off.

He nodded in greeting to Wells then turned back towards the line of people, completely ignoring Clarke. There was only one person in front now, which meant he would be next. Then the only thing left he would have to do would be to get his coffee and leave.

 He prayed this would work.

He heard Clarke and Wells talking and looked back to see they had moved to bottom of the line, which more people had now joined.

"Next," He heard the lady behind the checkout call. He walked towards it and placed his order, paying for it then moving to the other side to wait for it to be made.

"What's the point in this if you’re not even going to talk to her?" Murphy whispered a little too loudly.

"Just wait." Bellamy shushed.

He caught Clarke’s eye a few times but made a point to quickly look away from her.

His drink order was called so he grabbed his drink and passed the other to Murphy and turned towards the exit.

_Come on Clarke,_ he thought as he neared the door.

_Come on..._

He was about to pull open the door when he heard her.

"Bellamy wait!"

_Yes!_

He slowly turned around and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Yeah?"

She moved away from Wells, leaving him in the line and walked up to him.

"Can we talk?"

"There's nothing to talk about Clarke, you made your decision."

She looked between him and Murphy uncomfortably.

"Bellamy.." She trailed off and let out a breath, looking back up at him she added, "Please?"

He took a few minutes to reply and nodded, "Okay"

He turned to Murphy, "Go keep Wells company for minute, I wont be long,"

Murphy pouted but he walked towards Wells.

Bellamy motioned for Clarke to follow him and they sat down at an empty table; most the people here wanting to take-out than sit in. She stared at him with lost puppy eyes and it took all of Bellamy's willpower not to cave in.

He couldn't lie, even though he came here to try and change her mind, he couldn't help but feel angry at her. She had played him by pretending like she was having an amazing time with him, then by not texting him after. But then again could he really feel played when that was exactly what he was doing to her? He wasn't really sure but he knew that lines on either side had been crossed, and now it was a big blurry mess trying to understand if either of them was making the right choices.

Looking away from her he said, "You wanted to talk, so talk."

She was quiet for a few minutes and he felt his patience beginning to run out.

"I'm sorry." She said and Bellamy looked at her surprised.

"What for? Leading me on? Pretending like you had a good time the other night?"

"I did have a good time."

"Then why didn't you text me back?"

"I fell asleep." She said lamely and he laughed.

"I know it’s a lame excuse," She continued ignoring his laughter. "But it’s true. To be honest I wasn't sure if I did want to see you again, but I fell asleep before I could figure it out and make that decision."

He nodded his head slowly, "Okay, so how do you feel now?"

"I'm still not sure."

He made a move to get up but she laid her hand on top of his to stop him. He gulped in air at the contact, liking the feel of her silky smooth skin on his.

"Listen to me," She said and pleaded with him with her eyes.

He regained his seat.

"I've not done this kind of thing in a long time, so be patient with me," She smiled. "I don't really know how I feel about me and you, but what I do know is that I want to continue to get to know you."

"Like as friends?" He asked nervously, because no man on earth wanted to have that type of conversation with a girl they were attracted too.

"No," She laughed, "It's quite clear that I’m attracted to you Bellamy, but I don't want to rush things. If you want to try this with me and see where things go, then you have to be okay with taking things slow."

_How slow?_ He thought, He’d already taken her out on a date and hadn’t even gotten to the hand holding stage. Not that he'd ever really been to that stage before; the first stage for him was sleeping with the girl. And going back to what she had just said, it most certainly wasn't clear she was attracted to him. She'd been nothing but hot and cold with him since the day she met him.

_This girl is going to put me in an early grave_

"I’m okay with that," He said surprising himself.

"Really?" She asked eyes bright and wide.

"Yeah," He said throwing her a smile. He had to be okay with it if he wanted to win this bet, it just meant that it would take him a little while longer to succeed, but he would.

 "Good," She said smiling at him, "How about you come round to my place tomorrow? We can order pizza or something and just hang out."

He knew what code for hangout meant but he didn’t think it meant the same thing for her.

"Sure, that sounds like a plan."

"You ready Bellamy?" Murphy was at their table now interrupting them. "We have to go or we're going to be late for that thing."

Bellamy scrunched his eyebrows together. "What thing?"

Murphy bounced up and down uncomfortably, "You know.. _That thing_?!"

He was doing that twitchy thing with his neck that Wells had been doing earlier.

_What was this idiot doing? I knew I should never have brought him._

Clarke was staring at Murphy strangely, so Bellamy stood up determined to get Murphy out of here before he blew the whole plan.

"I better get this one home," He nodded towards Murphy.

Leaning in closer to Clarke, lowering his voice he added, "He's wasted, I’m trying to sober him up."

Clarke made a face of understanding, "Yeah, might be best if you get him home. Text me?"

"Of course," He threw her a wink and she blushed.

"See you later Clarke," He smiled at her and she threw him a little wave.

He grabbed Murphy round the collar and began pulling him out the coffee shop, before exiting he said goodbye to Wells.

Once outside he let go of Murphy roughly and he stumbled.

"What was that for?" He said angrily.

"Because you're an idiot," Bellamy replied, "You nearly ruined everything."

"Jeesh," Murphy muttered, "Remind me not to help you again."

"Get in the car Murphy," Bellamy said ignoring him completely and climbing into the truck.

Once they were both seated Murphy turned towards Bellamy with a wide smile on his face.

"I can see why you want to continue with this bet," He stated, "She's hot as fuck, if you manage to sleep with her, you win either way. Money or no money,"

Bellamy smiled at him, but felt the guilt swarm around his stomach.

_My friends think this is a great idea._

_But why am I all of sudden feeling like a complete douchebag?_

He tried to shake the thought, but it stayed with him for whole ride home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the lovely comments, kudos and bookmarks. It means a lot knowing that you guys are liking my story!. xx

“I know we had plans for a take-out,” She said as she let him through the door, “But I decided that because it was a date and I’ve been a royal bitch to you, that I should cook instead.”

He gaped at her, clearly not expecting her to say that and then he gaped some more when she led him into the Kitchen.

Clarke's place was nice, (I mean of course it was she lived in Polis) every piece of furniture purchased was high end and decorative. It wasn’t girly like he thought it would be, it had more of a modern feel to it. It didn’t really seem like her but he then again he didn’t really know her all that well.

Adorning the walls were pictures upon pictures in frames; upon closer inspection he realised they were paintings.

 _Now that,_ He thought, _seems more like Clarke._

Apart from the paintings, the kitchen was the first thing he saw when he walked into her house, it was open plan and looked right in on the living room. It was spacious and medium sized with and island in the middle.

Across from the kitchen in a little alcove sat a long rectangular table and two chairs, she had set it up with wine glasses and cutlery and placed some candles in the middle. It looked romantic and he couldn’t believe she had done this for him. It was usually him laying the groundwork.

“What are you cooking?” He asked as aromas of the food filled his nose.

“Steak,” She replied, “Do you like wine?”

He nodded, it wasn’t his go to drink but he could appreciate a glass of wine from time to time.

“Which do you prefer? Red or White?”

“Red.”

She wandered over to the island that had the wine laid out on it and poured it into two glasses. Once filled she quickly checked on the food and came back over to him handing him a glass. 

 _She looked good,_ he thought.

She hadn’t gone to too much effort and neither had he. Because the original plan had been to watch movies and order take-out, they were both dressed pretty casual. Her hair was swept up in a messy bun, a few loose strands framing her face and she wore an oversized grey jumper and some plain back leggings. He didn’t think she could look unattractive even if she tried.

He took a sip of wine and stated, “Some of this art work is really beautiful.”

She came up to his side and looked at the pieces he was staring at.

“Especially this one,” He said and pointed up to a landscape one.

“I drew them,” Clarke said sheepishly.

“What?” He said back in surprise.

“Every single art piece in this place, I drew.” She smiled at him and then pointed to the one he was admiring, “That one was from the view I seen from my balcony in Italy. It was absolutely breathtaking and I had to sketch it right then and there.”

“So you’ve been travelling?” He asked, “I knew you wanted to from our last conversation but I didn’t ask if you had already been.”

“I’ve only ever travelled to France and Italy, mainly for work conferences that my mom’s new boyfriend had to attend. I never really went because I wanted too.”

“Fair enough,” He nodded and looked back at the artwork. “These are really beautiful Clarke, you’re really talented. You should have these put on display in a gallery.”

“That’s the plan one day,” She said. “Remember how I told you I was volunteering at an art Gallery?”

He nodded.

“Well it’s the Shadow Valley Art Gallery about ten minutes from here.”

“I’m not really familiar with the Art world, but I guess from your tone of voice its good?”

“It’s the best Art Gallery in the State; anyone who’s anyone in the Art business gets to have their work hung up in there.” Her eyes had lit up when she talked about it, her obvious love for her passion coming out in waves. “Once I’ve finished up at College and got my final grade, my boss said she’d look at some of my pieces and if she liked them she would hang at least one up for people to view.”

“That’s amazing Clarke.”

“I know right? I’ve only got a few months left; I’m going to have to start figuring out what I want my final pieces to be.”

“Well if they look anything like these,” He said and pointed up to the paintings on the wall, “I think you’ll pass with flying colours.”

She smiled gratefully at him, “Thanks. Do you want to go sit down at the table; the food will be ready soon.” 

He nodded and made his way over to the table, taking a seat while Clarke checked the food once more.

“Okay, how about we play a game,” She said when she came back over and took a seat opposite him.

“What kind of game?”

“Twenty questions? Except we’ll make it ten questions as the food will be ready by then, I’ll ask five, you ask five”

“Okay, fire away.”

“What’s you’re favourite colour?”

He thought about it for a second, “I don’t really have one.”

She raised her eyebrows at that, “Okay, reading or computer games?”

“Reading definitely”

“Whats your favourite book?”

His head swarmed with memories from his past.

“I can’t pick.”

“Oh come on! You don’t have a favourite colour and now you can’t pick a favourite book? You must have one!”

“No seriously” He laughed, “I can’t pick. When we were younger my mom used to read to me and Octavia about Greek mythology, we loved it. She used to read this poem called _The_ _Iliad by Homer,_ which I actually still have on my bookshelf at home. There was another poem that she used to read to us, but I was much younger when she read it and I can’t recall the name of it, I just remember that I loved it.  So I can’t pick just one, I would have to say both of them are my favourites.”

“Do you remember what it was about?” She asked intrigued.

She liked the way Bellamy’s face lit up when he talked about his sister or his mother, she could tell family was everything to him.

“From what I can remember, it was about the Greek Hero Odysseus trying to find his way home after the fall of Troy. I remember being captivated when my mom read about him fighting mystical creatures. I also remember that when I was younger I used to pretend to be Odysseus, and I used to be pretend like my pillows were the mystical creatures that I had to fight. I must have looked like a right idiot when Octavia walked in on me punching the pillows.”

“Aw,” Clarke cooed, picturing a mental picture of young Bellamy slaying pretend creatures.

“Yeah, they were good times,” He thought fondly.

“I’ve never really read about Greek mythology before, maybe you can teach me a bit about it?”

“Sure,” He said, “Maybe not tonight though, we’ll be here forever.”

She laughed at and got up to check the food.

“Okay, this is nearly done so I’m just going to finish up over here.”

“Okay,” He said and took a sip of his drink.

She didn’t ask him another question so Bellamy took his turn.

“What about you? What’s your favourite colour?”

“The colour of morning,” She said instantly.

“That makes no sense.” He laughed.

“It does to me,” She replied coming over and picking up the plates, taking them back over to the island to dish them up. “My dad used to get up every day before dawn, I don’t know why; it was just something he did. One morning I heard the front door bang close, so I got up out of bed and went to see what was happening. I found my dad climbing up some ladders to the shed roof with a blanket in his hand. He caught sight of me and instead of sending me back to bed he came back down the ladders and helped me up to the roof. I asked him what he was doing and he told me to wait and see.”

She brought the plates over and settled them down in front of them, then she grabbed the wine and started to refill their glasses continuing, “I didn’t wait long to understand what he was talking about, maybe about 10 minutes. The sky that was black when I came out was suddenly filled with the most vibrant yellows and oranges as the sun began to rise. At a young age, It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It still is.”

Her eyes had misted over at the memory, “I still don’t know why he went up their every morning, and I don’t know what his reasons were. But after that night, he didn’t go up there alone anymore, and we did that every morning up until his death.”

“That sounds pretty amazing,” Bellamy said gently, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sunrise, I mean I work night shifts so by the time I get home it's morning time. But I don’t think I’ve ever just stopped to see it happen.”

“You should,” She encouraged, “Its beautiful.”

“Do you still do it?” He asked, “Watch the sunrise?”

She shook her head, “No, I don’t have a roof safe enough to climb up.”

“Anyway,” She continued, “We should eat before it gets cold.”

Bellamy suddenly remembered she had laid food down in front of him.

“This looks and smells amazing,” He said and it did.

They eased off the subject of deceased parents very quickly and moved onto a more emotionally stable territory of conversation. It wasn’t hard to talk about their parents with each other, in fact Clarke found it incredibly easy to open up to Bellamy about her dad and vice versa for Bellamy. They were both bound by grief for someone that they loved and they felt that they could share that with each other.

Their conversation changed and the question game was forgotten, both finding out things naturally rather than asking. They stayed at the table long after they had finished their food, bellies full and satisfied and the company even better. They laughed until they couldn’t laugh no more and drank until they ran out of wine.

“Thanks for the food, it was surprisingly very nice.” He said to her as he moved the plates to the sink. He turned the tap on and let the water fill up the bowl so he could wash up. It was the least he could do considering she had cooked. Clarke grateful, let him and grabbed a towel from the side moving to stand by him and help to dry them.

“I didn’t imagine you being a cook,” He continued, “I didn’t think you could.”

“There’s a lot you still don’t know about me,” She laughed.

“Well I can’t wait to find them things out.”

And he did.

Over the course of that week he began to learn a lot about Clarke Griffin.  

Like he knew when she was angry because she would scrunch up her nose and her nostrils would flare. He knew the word ‘moist’ seriously freaked her out and if you said it whilst she was around, she would stick her fingers in her ears and talk over you really loudly to block you out. He knew the taste of ketchup knocked her sick and her favourite thing to eat was vanilla ice cream.  He learned that she had a big heart and would do anything for her friends or family.

On a date when they went Go Karting he learnt that she was stubborn, competitive and a sore loser. He came to learn this when they did a few laps around the track and he beat her, she pulled her face and demanded they go again, walking back up to pay for another lap before he could say anything. She then went on to pay for an extra 3 more laps until Bellamy finally caught on and held back so she could win. Feeling satisfied with herself, they left the track and went downstairs to the food area.

“You are such a shit driver,” She goaded. “I whooped your ass on that track.”

She wouldn’t let it go and kept going on and on about how good she was at driving and how shit he was, this was where he learnt she could take a joke.

“Let it go princess,” He warned teasingly. “Or this ice cream is going on your pretty little head.”

“Why? Because you know I’m right?” She huffed, “You’re just jealous that I’m a better driver than you.”

_That’s it_

He took the ice cream he was eating and splattered it on her head, the cone crumbling in his hands as he did so. She mainly sat there for a few seconds and stared at him in disbelief but she cracked a smile.

“You’re dead Bellamy!”

Not one to back down, something else he’d also learnt, she threw her ice cream at him and it landed on his t-shirt as he tried to get away. She didn’t stop there and instantly reached for the mustard sauce from the line of condiments on the table, pointing the bottle at him and squeezing on it hard so it covered him from head to toe. He grabbed one from the table nearest him and before he knew it, it had turned into an all out food fight.

She was laughing so hard, ducking behind the chairs and trying to hide, but he always got her. He grabbed her round the waist at one point and emptied the contents of the mustard sauce on her head, she didn’t try to fight back due to laughing so hard.

He found himself learning, that he liked hearing her laugh.

There weren't many people in the food area. The few that were looked on in amusement, a few looked on in disgust. One of them must have gone to tell on them because before they knew it, the manager of the Go Karting place came stomping over to them red in the face.

He screamed at them to leave the premises and proceeded to tell them to never come back because they were banned. Clarke covered in multiple sauces and ice cream dripping down her face yelled back at him.

“I understand that we’ve caused quite a mess here, and we’ve offered to clean up after ourselves. There is no need for you to be so rude with us and speak to us like we’re shit on your shoe!”

“You’re acting like children!” He yelled back, “It’s disgusting, grow the fuck up!”

“Fuck you!” She growled and Bellamy watched on in amusement, glad to not be on the receiving end of her anger for once. “I’m glad we’re banned, because I wouldn’t waste anymore money here again. I’ll be making sure to tell my friends to go down the road to Daytona Go Karting instead.”

Bellamy laughed, that was probably the worst thing she could have said considering this company was going bust because of their competition.

“Good!” He huffed, “I wouldn’t want a stuck up Polis bitch or any of her stupid friends coming here anyway!”

Clarke learned in that moment that Bellamy was an overprotective hot head, when out of nowhere his fist came flying round her and connected with manager’s face, sending him sprawling on the floor.

“Don’t ever speak to her like that!” He growled staring down at him murderously.

“Call the police,” The man squeeked, talking to anyone who would listen.

“No! Hang on a second!” Clarke interjected moving herself in front of Bellamy and the man. “I’m sure we can sort something out.”

Here Bellamy saw just how protective she was about the people she cared about, when she had to swallow her own words about spending money here. She used the fact the she was rich as an advantage and basically bribed the guy with money, so he wouldn’t call the cops and have Bellamy arrested. He agreed, took the money and with a promise that we would never step foot in the place again, he let them go.

Not long after they got out of there he learnt that she will say whats on her mind.

“What did you do that for Bellamy?” She whirled on him, “You could of gotten arrested!”

“He deserved it, he shouldn’t have spoken to you like that!”

“There was no need for you for you to go all protective on me! I can handle myself.”

She realised how stubborn he was.

“I know Clarke,” He said. “I’ll apologise to _you_ , if I made you feel uncomfortable back there. But I will not apologise for hitting that guy when he was being a class A douche to you.”

She forgave him not long after their little dispute, when he came back with a vanilla ice cream for her. He gave her the puppy dog eyes and she was a goner.

When he dropped her back off at home that night, she grumbled in fake annoyance, “Why is it after a date with you, I always come home smelling like I’ve been living in a dumpster and I have to spend hours getting shit out of my hair?”

“You love it,” He teased and ruffled her hair on purpose, spreading the sticky ice cream and mustard sauce around.

She laughed, flipped him the bird and then went inside.

He didn’t just learn all the little things about her or her little quirks, he got to know her hopes and dreams and she opened up to him about her mother. She told him that their relationship was strained because she had moved on with someone else so quickly after her dads passing. She told him how they hadn’t talked that much to each other in months and how she felt betrayed by her.

“I just can’t forgive her for what she did,” She mumbled as they sat at a bar one night, “I just hold it all in and when I see her, I explode. Does that make me a horrible person?”

She had looked at him like she was afraid what he would say.

“I don’t think it makes you a horrible person. I just think that you loved your dad so much, that you would do anything to protect him, even now he’s gone. You’re trying to protect his memory, and by your mom finding someone else, you feel like she’s trying to erase it.”

He seen a tear leak from her eye and he quickly reached out to wipe it away.

“Maybe you need to talk to her, even if you explode at her. Maybe that might help you heal, and she can understand how you’ve been feeling these past couple of months.”

“Maybe,” She had muttered and took a sip of her drink.

“You know her new boyfriend is the co-owner of Trikru Corp,” She continued.

He looked at her in surprise, “Who Marcus Kane?”

She nodded, “Yeah. He co-owns with someone named Indra, I’ve met her a few times, she’s kind of scary.”

“Kind of?” He said sarcastically and she laughed.

He didn’t know Marcus Kane personally, he had only seen him a few times on shift but he had never spoken to him. Indra on the hand he had seen in action, she was more than scary and he wouldn’t admit it to anyone but he was slightly afraid of her.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” She turned serious, “I know you know my family has money, I just didn’t want you to think of me as entitled.”

His facial expression softened, “Clarke, the last thing I would ever thing about you is entitled. Stubborn, competitive and sometimes a know it all, sure. But never entitled.”

She smiled at him a genuine smile.

Since she had opened about her mother he felt it was only fair if he told her something about himself too.

“I don’t know If you noticed that I close up every time someone mentions Octavia's boyfriend.”

“I did,” She nodded, “I just didn’t push you on it cause I know how it feels to have someone constantly ask you about something you don’t want to talk about.”

“Thanks,” He said gratefully. “I just really dislike the guy.”

“Why?”

“Honestly I don’t know,” He shrugged, “I don’t even think it’s because of anything he’s done, because he’s never done anything to cross me. I think it’s more to do with that fact that I’m just protective of my sister.”

“I could never tell,” She muttered teasing him.

He smiled and nudged her lightly with his shoulder.

 “I think I’m just scared that he’s going to break her heart,” He admitted, “She’s been through a lot in her life and I don’t think she could handle it if he did break her heart. I’m constantly breathing down his neck, I think what I’m really doing is setting him up to fail. Does that make me a bad person?”

“Nope,” She shook her head, putting enthasis on the p. “It just makes you human.”

He took a sip of his drink.

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to protect your sister Bellamy,” She continued, “You’ll go to your grave making sure she’s okay. But you should cut him some slack,”

He looked at in confusion, “Why?”

“Because by setting him up to fail, you’re setting him up to hurt your sister and I think that’s the last thing you want. I’m not saying fully lay off him, but just cut him a little slack. He’s done okay so far hasn’t he?”

“I suppose,” He grumbled thinking about what she was saying and in most parts she was right. Lincoln hadn’t done anything to hurt her in the past two years he’d been with her. “You know princess, you actually speak sense.”

“Just call me Agony Aunt Griffin,” She giggled.

They’d been on a few dates now and Clarke wasn’t kidding when she had said she wanted to take things slow. There had plenty of opportunities or moments even, when he had wanted to kiss her, but it had never happened.

But when he walked her home that night and they talked some more, she had slipped her hand in his. It felt easy being with her and talking to her, he hadn’t been able to speak to someone like this a long time.

And even though it was something as small as holding her hand, Bellamy didn’t mind one bit. In fact he had even liked it, it had felt natural.

But everything he had done with Clarke had felt natural, like everything in the world was right when he was with her.

\--

The next morning when he woke up he had no plans to see Clarke and that was weird for him. He had spent so much of his time with her that it was beginning to become a routine for him to see her everyday. He felt weird knowing he wasn’t going to be driving to her house, but his little sister was on a flight back home right now. She was due to land in a few hours time and Bellamy couldn’t lie, he was really excited to see her. He had missed her presence around his house, even though she didn’t live here. He had missed her silly jokes and pranks she played on Murphy.

It had been a hard pill to swallow when she had told him she was moving out and he didn’t speak to her for the rest of day. She had managed to talk him round and he realised that she wasn’t a little girl anymore and had to make her own decisions about her own life. He had laid out a lot of ground rules for Lincoln to follow when they moved in together. Though he doubted very much that they had followed the “You better be sleeping in separate rooms” rule.

He sat up in his bed and reached over for his phone, swiping up too see a couple of texts had come through.

**From: Octavia**

**Bellamy I won’t be home tomorrow. My flights been delayed and there won’t be another flight flying out now until Sunday.**

**O x**

_What?_

He checked the time that she had sent the message and it was sent early hours this morning, he instantly replied to her.

**To: Octavia**

**What do you mean the flights been delayed? Why ? Can’t they get you on an earlier flight? Are you okay?**

He didn’t sign off on the text like he usually did, his head was spinning with worry thinking about all the different possibilities on why they would cancel her flight.

She replied back pretty quickly as if expecting him to spiral.

**From: Octavia**

**I’m okay stop worrying! Lincoln paid for an extra two nights at the hotel, I’ll be fine until Sunday. It’s only two days, I’ll be home before you know it. They overbooked the flight, that’s why it got cancelled, they put too many people on the plane even though it was already full. There’s a few other people who couldn’t get on it and they’ve had to come back to the hotel too. The next flight they can get us on is Saturday our time, so I’ll be home Sunday morning your time.**

**O x**

_I suppose I should be grateful that she’s with Lincoln,_ He thought, _But I fucking hate that guy._

He remembered what he had talked about with Clarke last night and instantly felt guilty for the thought. He _was_ grateful she was with Lincoln, if she wasn’t Bellamy wouldn’t have known what to do.

Feeling frustrated, he ran a hand through his hair. He had been looking forward to seeing her today, he had really missed her but there wasn’t much he could do sitting in his bedroom whilst she was in a different country.

**To: Octavia**

**I’m not happy about it but there isn’t much I can do to change it. Tell Lincoln to keep you safe or he’ll be dealing with me.**

**I’ll see you Sunday.**

**I miss you O**

**Bellamy X**

He quickly sent another text after that.

**P.S Tell Lincoln I’m grateful he’s there with you.**

She replied back.

**From: Octavia**

**I’ll be fine Bell, I promise. I’ll let Lincoln know what you said, are you feeling alright?**

**Miss you too.**

**O x**

He clicked off the message and read the others that had come through, one was off Emori.

**From: Emori**

**There is no way that I’m going to be able to leave Murphy on his own tomorrow without him getting suspicious. I hope you don’t mind but I’ve texted Maya, Harper, Monty, Wells and Jasper to head to yours tomorrow to help set everything up. I’ll keep Murphy distracted and I’ve gave Harper strict instructions on how I want everything to look.**

_Fuck,_ He thought. _Murphy’s birthday, I forgot about that._

**To: Emori**

**That’s fine, I’ll make sure everything goes smoothly. Stop worrying.**

He checked his other message that had come through and it was from Clarke, though he had changed her name in his contacts to princess.

The first things that popped up was a picture of her face and her hand was pointing to her head, she was giving the camera an ‘are you serious?’ look. Underneath was a message.

**From: Princess**

**My hair still smells like vanilla. I hate you.**

Bellamy laughed at that and then seen there was another message underneath.

**Have fun with Octavia today x**

He instantly felt sad again.

**To: Princess**

**Her flights been delayed, she won’t be back until Sunday now. Come over tonight? X**

**From: Princess**

**Sure, I’m working until about 7 but I can get to yours for about 9. Is that okay? X**

**To: Princess**

**Yeah, see you then princess x**

He put his phone back down and lay back on his bed in annoyance.

_Stupid plane, stupid Lincoln._

-

Before Clarke came, Bellamy had asked Murphy if he could stay out at Emori's that night and luckily for him, that was already Murphy's plan. Echo had already been gone for the past few days to spend some time at a friends house, she wasn’t due back until tomorrow so he took full advantage of the empty house.

When she finally came over, he had cooked and they had watched movies. They ended up losing track of time when they began talking and before they knew it, it was the early hours of the morning.

That night that Clarke came round, was the first time he had seen her cry.

Not a few tears here and there but a full blown, chest heaving snot inducing cry.

Upon glancing at the time, Bellamy had already knew what he wanted to do. He told Clarke to follow him and led her upstairs to Murphy's room and out of his window onto the shed rood outside of it. She hand’t grasped what he was planning yet but when she stepped outside and saw the familiar colours of the sunrise she began to cry. Not because she was upset or mad but because she was touched by the gesture of what Bellamy had done and how thoughtful it was of him. She cried because she hadn’t done this in so long and it reminded her of her dad and the memories she had of sitting there with him doing this.

Bellamy wasn’t prepared for her crying, but he consoled her anyway by pulling out a blanket and wrapping them both in it. He pulled her in close so that her head was resting on his chest and he stroked her hair. Once she had calmed down and got her bearings together, they both sat down and took in the sight as the sun rose.

Bellamy sat in awe, remembering how Clarke had said it was beautiful. It was beautiful and he let himself take it in.

Clarke sat there and let herself reminisce on old memories, then she let herself be there in that moment, with him.

Later when the sun was nearly fully visible, Clarke lay her head down in Bellamy’s lap and watched, basking in the glow of the light. He ran his fingers through her hair and as the light hit her face perfectly, Bellamy learned something else about Clarke.

He was beginning to really like her.

Which in in turn meant, that he was completely and utterly _fucked._

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

The house was booming by the time Clarke got there.

Bellamy had mentioned to her on their date the other night, that he was throwing Murphy a surprise birthday party and he had invited her to come along. She said no at first, feeling nervous about being around a load people she didn’t know. But Bellamy had assured her it would be fine and that he wouldn’t leave her side if she didn’t want him too, so in the end she had agreed.

She hadn’t wanted to turn up too early to the party, so she had arrived an hour after the agreed time that her and Bellamy had set. As she walked up to the door, she could hear the music blasting and people were spilling out of the door and onto the lawn holding cups of what she presumed was alcohol. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves, this was way out of her comfort zone.

She smoothed down her dress, a habit she did when she was feeling nervous and continued to walk into the house. The inside was pretty much the same as the outside, people were everywhere. Some were sprawled out on the couches in groups talking and laughing, some were making out. Others littered the floor in between the couches using it as a dance floor.

The house itself was nice, it was spacious and clean which surprised Clarke as she knew boys lived here. She had just assumed it would be cluttered and messy.

Her eyes scanned the room for Bellamy but she couldn’t see him within the crowd of people. She decided to search the other rooms, hoping he would be in one of them.

She managed to find him in the kitchen surrounded by a group of boys, he was laughing at something one of them had said. She felt out of place here because the only person she knew was Bellamy. Once again she smoothed down the end of her dress and faking courage that wasn’t there, she made her way over to him. She tapped him lightly on the shoulder and he turned around to face her, his eyes going wide when he caught sight of her.

“Hey,” She said and watched as his face broke out into a wide smile.

“You came,” He replied, “I didn’t think you would.”

“I was debating it,” She said teasingly. “The free alcohol was what made me to decide to come.”

He laughed and then took a minute to properly look at her, his eyes roaming her body making a blush creep up her neck.

“You look beautiful,” He said so sincerely that it caught her off guard.

She had definitely made an effort this time, unlike back when they had their first date. She had curled her long blonde locks and they fell loosely down her shoulders and back. She wore minimal makeup and had decided to wear a tight blue dress with some black heels. The dress wasn’t tight enough to be considered slutty, it was just tight enough to accentuate her curves and show a little bit of cleavage.

“Thanks,” She blushed not used to the compliments.

He gave her a wink and asked, “Do you want a drink?”

She shook her head to say no.

“I thought you came here for the free alcohol?”

“I was joking,” She laughed.

He threw her a look and teased, “Come on princess, you’re allowed to let loose and have a little fun sometimes.”

She knew he was taunting her and she fell for the bait.

“Fine,” She caved in. “I’ll have one drink.”

He grinned and moved towards one of the kitchen counters that had multiple bottles of alcohol lined up on top of it. Whilst he was getting her a drink, she took the opportunity to get a good look at him.

He was wearing dark black jeans and a short sleeved black top, it was simple but _damn_ did he look good in it. His arm muscles looked like they were about to protrude out of the top at any second and Clarke felt a twinge of desire looking at them.

Within moments he came back, cup in hand and passed it over to her. She looked inside the cup to see a clear liquid in it and then she took a sip of it, the familiar taste of Vodka and Tonic hitting her taste buds.

“Is that..?” She trailed off taking another sip to be sure.

Bellamy caught on quickly to what she was asking, he was already awaiting her reaction to it.

“I got it in especially for you, princess,” He smiled. “Even put a label on the bottle with my name on it, so everyone knew not to touch it.”

She was touched by his thoughtfulness and felt her face heat up again.

“Come on,” He said breaking the moment and grabbing her hand. “I want to introduce you to a few people.”

She nodded feeling the familiar nerves come back and let herself be led back to living room that she had just came from. Bellamy pulled her through the throng of people gathering on the makeshift dance floor and came to a stop in front of the couch, which two people were currently residing on totally entwined with each other.

Bellamy coughed loudly to signal his presence and they slowly broke apart looking at the source of the intrusion with annoyance.

“What do you want Bellamy?” The boy said annoyed. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?”

Bellamy smiled and totally ignored his questioning, “Monty, Harper, I want you to meet Clarke.”

Both of their eyes travelled from Bellamy to Clarke curiously, then their gazes turned to surprise when they seen they were holding hands. They stared in silence for a few seconds until Bellamy interrupted them.

“Guys,” He said slightly irritated. “Don’t be so rude!”

“Oh my gosh,” Harper said and jumped up. “I’m so sorry. My names Harper, It’s nice to meet you Clarke.”

“You too,” Clarke said and held her hand out formally, something her mother had ingrained in her to do in social situations. Harper looked down at her hand like it was the most confusing thing in the world, and then she laughed.

She grabbed Clarke by the shoulders, ignoring the outstretched hand and pulled her into a hug. Clarke stood there awkwardly at first then wrapped her hands around her, glancing over her shoulder in time to see Monty mouthing something to Bellamy. She wasn’t sure what he was saying and before she could see him say anything else, Harper let go of her and smiled. A few seconds later, Monty also stood up and gave her a hug.

“Sorry about that,” He said once they had pulled apart. “I’m not used to meeting the girls Bellamy brings home.”

 “Monty,” Bellamy hissed and Clarke shifted awkwardly in her place.

“Wait,” Harper said sitting down, addressing Clarke with a smile. “So does that mean that you two are together? Like in a girlfriend, boyfriend sort of way?”

Clarke wanted the ground to swallow her up right then and there. She hadn’t really had the conversation with Bellamy about what they were yet, she wasn’t really sure herself. The only thing she was sure of was that she was no way near ready to be someone’s girlfriend yet.

“Erm..” She trailed off looking at Bellamy, unsure of what to say. He laughed at her awkwardness and threw his arm around her shoulder, tucking her into him. Monty and Harper’s eyes went wide at the action.

_Why are they acting so weird?_

“No, we’re not _girlfriend or boyfriend,”_ He said mimicking her. “We’re just seeing how things go.”

“So you’re dating then?” Harper pressed.

“Yeah,” He said looking down at her with a soft smile, she grinned back up at him. “I guess you could say that.”

 _Dating,_ she thought _. I can live with that._

Harper let out a squeal and jumped up to hug them again.

“This is so cool,” she chattered excitedly. “We can go on double dates and everything.”

“Sure,” Clarke laughed instantly liking this girl, her energy was infectious.

“Bout time man,” Monty said fist pumping him.

“Monty!” Came a shout from behind them. They turned around to see who it was and Clarke saw another boy who was staring at Monty in annoyance.

“Yes jasper?” He asked.

“You said you would get some of that _stuff_ we wanted,” Jasper replied.  “Everyone I’ve rang is running low or unwilling to deliver.”

A smirk pulled at Monty’s face and he reached into his pocket pulling out a clear plastic bag.

“Ye have little faith, my friend.”

Jasper looked at the bag he was holding and smiled widely, then he jumped over the back of the couch and took the bag from him.

“You are my saviour,” He opened the bag and sniffed into it and Clarke got a waft of it, it was pot. “Shall we light one up?”

He looked up and stopped what he was doing, only now just realising there were other people surrounding him.

“Bellamy!” He shouted and fist pumped him. “How have you been?”

“Good,” Came Bellamy’s reply.

Jasper turned his attention to Clarke next and he took in the scene in front of him, with her tucked away underneath Bellamy’s arm, his eyes widened.

_Why does everyone look so shocked when they see me?_

“Hey there hot stuff,” He said and let his eyes roam down her body, making Clarke feel slightly uncomfortable. Bellamy slapped the top of his head.

“Ow!” He shouted rubbing his head.

“This is my date, Clarke,” He growled at him.

He looked sheepish, and smiled apologetically at her, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” She smiled back.

“Come on, I need another drink,” Bellamy whispered in her ear and she nodded.

“I’ll catch up with you guys later,” He said to the group.

“Clarke, come hang out with us later,” Harper said.

Clarke nodded and waved to them as Bellamy led her back to the kitchen.

“Sorry about Jasper,” Bellamy said as he poured himself another drink. “He gets like that sometimes.”

“Don’t worry about it,” She waved him off, sipping her drink. “They seem really nice. How did you meet them?”

“I met Monty through work; Jasper came part of the package. They’ve know each their whole lives.” He said coming back up to her. “Harper is Monty’s girlfriend, so that’s how I met her. She’s friends with Maya, a girl Jasper’s sweet on. You’ll meet her later.”

She nodded taking the information in and then she seen someone’s hands snake their way around Bellamy’s waist.

“Hey handsome,” A girls voice purred at him and she watched as he tensed up at the interaction.

“Echo,” He said through gritted teeth and moved her hands off of his waist. As he did so, she caught sight of the owner of the voice. She was pretty with long brown hair and a slim frame; she was staring up Bellamy like he was her pray.

“I’ve been trying to talk to you all night,” She pouted.

“I’ve been mingling with guests.”

He looked like he would rather be elsewhere right now than talking to her, so Clarke got the impression that they wasn’t on good terms. She rolled her eyes at him and then focused on Clarke, her eyes narrowing as she did so.

“Who’s this?” She asked with disdain.

“I’m Clarke, nice to meet you.” Clarke replied before Bellamy could, with a smile.

Echo threw her a dirty look and looked back up to Bellamy ignoring her.

_What’s her problem?_

“Did you bring her here?” She demanded.

“Not that it’s any of your business, yes I did.”

She looked angry by this and turned her attention back to Clarke with a look of disgust.

“So you’re his new whore?”

Clarke blanched at the bluntness of her statement.

“Excuse me?”

“Echo!” Bellamy exclaimed.

“I said are you his new whore?” She took a step towards Clarke threateningly.

Not one to back down, Clarke took a step forwards too. “What is your problem?”

 “I don’t have a problem, I just know what Bellamy’s like. Once he’s done with you, he’ll cast you to the side like you’re nothing,” She sneered. “Then he’ll come running back to me. He always does.”

“Echo, I think it’s time you left,” Bellamy said from her side, not liking where the conversation was heading.

“It seems to me, he’s already cast you to the side” Clarke bit back. “And now you’re acting like a jealous brat because it’s clear he has no interest in you anymore.”

It happened all at once.

Echo screeched a horrible sound and lunged for her, but Bellamy quickly grabbed her round the waist halting her movements. At the same time that Echo lunged, Clarke threw the contents of her drink at her, her go to defence at the moment. The vodka Tonic hit its target and landed on her face, drenching her and Bellamy who was reaching out behind her to stop her.

Surprised by Clarke’s actions, Echo froze letting it sink in that she had threw her drink at her. Within seconds she was lunging at Clarke again but she wasn’t getting anywhere near her because Bellamy still had his hands around her.

“You’re going to regret that!” Echo shouted venomously at her and Bellamy lifted her up. She kicked her legs out trying to aim for Clarke but missed her and Bellamy proceeded to take her out of the kitchen.

Clarke stood alone, shaking with adrenaline.

_What the fuck just happened?_

\--

“I’m not leaving Bellamy,” Echo shouted at him. “This is my house too, you should make her leave.”

“You attacked her!” He shouted back.

“She threw a drink at me,” She pouted.

“You deserved it,” He fired back without an ounce of sympathy.

“Why are you being so mean?” she sat down on the stairs and looked up at him sadly.

“Echo,” He sighed. “I brought a girl that I like to a party and instead of her having a good time; she had to deal with you attacking her. How do you expect me to react? I thought we were past this.”

“Past this?” She repeated. “Bellamy I’m in love with you. How do you expect to me to get past this, or over you when your constantly parading girls in front of me?”

Bellamy ran a hand through his hair. This was such a fucked up situation and he regretted ever sleeping with her, he had had enough.

“Look,” He started. “It’s as simple as this. You need to deal with your shit; I’m not going to stop bringing girls over just because you have an issue with it. We’re never going to be together, we wouldn’t work. Now, I’m going to go change then I’m going to go back downstairs and spend some time Clarke. If I catch you near her or acting like that towards her again, you’re going to have to move out, because we can’t continue to live like this anymore.”

“But Bellamy..”

“No, Echo.” He cut her off. “That’s all I have to say on the subject.”

He stormed past her up to his bedroom to change his clothes.

\--

“So you met Echo huh?” Wells said coming to Clarke's side.

She felt her nerves ease at seeing a familiar face.

“You could say that,” She replied wryly.

“She’s alright when you get to know her.”

Clarke scoffed and stared at him, “That’s one girl I’m definitely not going to try and get to know.”

Wells laughed.  

“What’s the deal with her and Bellamy anyway?” She continued. “She only had a problem with me when she realised I was with him. Are they a thing?”

An unfamiliar feeling came with that question, one she hadn’t felt in a long time.

Jealousy.

“You’ll have to talk to Bellamy about that, it’s not my business to discuss.”

“Aw come on Wells,” She whined. “You’re my friend, it’s your duty to help me out and tell me these things.”

“What is it with you and Bellamy wanting me to help you out with one another?” He complained.

She wasn’t sure what he meant by that but before she could ask, Bellamy re entered the kitchen.

“You okay?” He asked with concern, coming up by her side.

She nodded.

“Have you met Clarke?” Wells laughed. “She knows how to handle herself.”

Bellamy laughed and agreed with him. Then he turned his attention back to her and looked at her with his eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face. “Throwing drinks again princess, really?”

She shrugged at him offhandedly, not really knowing what to say to him after what had just went down.

Wells immediately sensing the tension said his goodbyes, saying he would catch up to them later and then he left them to talk.

“I know somethings wrong Clarke,” He said with concern. “Talk to me, tell me what’s bothering you.”

 “What the fuck was all that about Bellamy?” She exploded. “She came at me, for no reason. She doesn’t even know me.”

“She just gets a little crazy sometimes,” He said.

“A little?” She said incredulously. “She’s a psychopath.”

Bellamy didn’t really know what to say to her, he had never gotten this far in the conversation with girls where he would have to explain Echo’s actions. It wasn’t the first time she had done this, in fact she had done this multiple times to the girls Bellamy had brought home and each one had left in flurry of tears never to be seen again, but not Clarke.

Clarke had in fact stayed and she had also stood her ground with Echo, and Bellamy was pleased to see someone finally put her in her place.

“Are you two a thing?” She asked in a small voice. “Like are you seeing each other in an open relationship kind of way?”

That was only thing she could think of as to why Echo would react that way. She thought they must have been seeing each other, as it was clear as day that Echo had feelings for Bellamy. But if they were seeing each other, how come he was here with her? Her thoughts had come up with the idea that they must be in an open relationship and Echo hated seeing him with other girls.

She was annoyed at thinking like this, but she couldn’t help it.

 “No!” He said quickly, “Not at all.”

She raised her eyebrows at him, urging him to go on and give her an explanation.

“We used to be a thing,” He muttered and watched her face drop in disappointment. He nudged her chin upwards and pushed a piece of hair behind her ear, and she sucked in a gulp of air.  

“I don’t have any feelings for Echo like that,” He promised, pleading with his eyes for her to understand. “I never did. We just hooked up a couple of times, something I now regret.”

Clarke wasn’t stupid; she knew it was probably more than a couple of times. He was a player and everyone knew it. That’s why Monty, Jasper and Harper looked shocked when he had introduced them; they hadn’t expected him to bring a girl to this party.  They hadn’t expected him to bring a girl back and say that he was dating her. But the term ‘he WAS a player” meant it was in the past, and she was okay with that, god knows she had done some stupid things in her past too.

He braced himself for her telling him she couldn’t do this anymore, that she was going to go home, but the words never left her mouth.

“It’s okay,” She said quietly and he wasn’t sure if he heard her correctly. “I’m not going to judge you on your past choices Bellamy, it’s not like we were in a relationship then. What matters to me is the kind of choices you decide to make now.”

He felt a funny feeling in his stomach, one he couldn’t quite put his finger on. His heart sped up and without thinking he moved his hand to the side of her face, she gasped and voluntarily moved her head into his palm.

He wanted to kiss her so badly, and this time it seemed like the right moment. She seemed receptive towards his advances, so he lowered his head slowly giving her the chance to back out if she wanted to, but she didn’t. He slowly leaned down further, his lips just barely brushing hers.

“Bell-a-my! Bell-a-my!” Came a loud chant from behind him and they both sprung apart like they were caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing.

Bellamy turned around and saw Murphy standing there with a big grin on his face holding two shots of brown liquid.

_Fucking Murphy._

He heard Clarke laugh from behind him and understood why.

Murphy had on a bright pink top hat with the words Happy Birthday written on it. Christmas lights adorned the top and bottom of it, flashing a multitude of different colours. On top of his clothes he was also wearing a bright yellow scarf with a massive birthday badge stuck to it.

He looked ridiculous.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” Bellamy laughed.

“This is fashionable,” he said with a wink and handed Bellamy a shot.

He turned to Clarke and handed her one, “Hey gorgeous!”

Clarke snorted again not being able to take him seriously.

“Where have you been?” Bellamy asked. He’d been missing for the best part of an hour.

“Had something to take care of,” He winked and Bellamy felt like he would throw up. “Speaking of which, here she is now!”

Emori walked in with a slightly flushed expression.

”Emori, this is Clarke,” He said when she was by his side, “Bellamy’s girlfriend.”

Emori’s head turned to look at Bellamy with shock, then to Clarke with intrigue.

“Hey,” She said to her and Clarke smiled.

“You managed to tame him then?” She queried.

Clarke laughed, “Oh I don’t think he can be tamed.”

Emori laughed with her.

“Right enough of that,” Murphy said coming back over with two more shots. He handed one to Emori. “Drink up.”

“What is it?” Emori asked inspecting the shot glass.

“Something I made,” Murphy replied confidently.

“Ugh,” Bellamy pulled a face.

“Happy Birthday Murphy,” Clarke said and lifted the shot glass up, clearly not knowing what she was letting her self in for when she drank it.

“Happy birthday,” Emori and Bellamy chorused lifting their glasses up. Murphy grinned at them and in unison they downed the shots.

Bellamy felt the disgusting liquid burn his throat and grimaced, Clarke heaved and Murphy an Emori stood there with a straight face like they had just drank a can of coke.

“That’s disgusting!” Clarke spluttered.

“That my friend is a masterpiece,” Murphy laughed.

Clarke walked over to the kitchen side and poured herself another drink. Once it was poured she drank huge gulps from it, trying to get rid of the taste of the shot from her mouth.

“Woah, slow down princess,” Bellamy laughed at her. “You don’t want to get too drunk before the party really gets going.”

“I’ll be fine,” She hiccupped.

Bellamy turned to ask Murphy a question, but decided against it when he seen that he had pulled Emori in for long kiss.  

“Let’s go dance,” Bellamy said pulling Clarke away from them. He really didn’t want to stand there whilst Murphy made sloppy kissing noises, it wasn’t attractive.

The living room was lively when they re-entered it. People were dancing, some had designated a corner of the room for smoking weed and Bellamy instantly moved them outside as it was beginning to get a bit smoky in there. Jasper was apart of the group that got turfed outside and he sent Clarke a cheeky wink on his way out. In other corners of the room, people were playing drinking games, like beer pong and ring of fire.

Instantly upon walking in, Harper called Clarke’s name and she looked over to see her sitting with another girl who was throwing her a curious look.

“Go,” Bellamy urged, “Have fun, we’ll meet up later.”

She smiled at him and made her way over.

The other girl, Clarke found out was called Maya, Jasper’s current interest. She was a sweet girl with short brown hair and a childish smile, she instantly liked her.

She seemed to click with both girls and Clarke was grateful to Bellamy for introducing them. They asked her a lot about Bellamy, whether they were an item and if she was really into him. Clarke kept her cards close and didn’t reveal much, once they got the hint that she didn’t want to talk about Bellamy, they just asked her about herself and they got to know each other. Harper was currently studying psychology and wanted to be a counsellor; she’d been with Monty for years and said he was the best thing that ever happened to her. Maya was currently studying medicine and couldn’t decide if she wanted to be with Jasper or kill him.

They were later joined by Emori who was just as nice as the other girls, but Clarke felt a stronger connection with Harper. Clarke had also noticed that Echo had re-joined the party with a change of clothes and much dryer hair than when she had last seen her. A few times she saw her throw dirty looks her way, but she ignored it, not rising to the bait.

“Time for spin the bottle people!” She heard a voice shout.

She turned to see Murphy grinning, holding an empty bottle in the air.

Multiple people shouted in joy, and Emori groaned.

“He’s wasted,” She said, and looking at him she was totally right. He could barely stand up and he was slurring his words barking orders at people.

“Come onnn,” He said, “Make some room.”

A few people shifted from the middle of the room and Murphy plonked himself down on the floor, placing the bottle in the middle. A few other people got up and joined him.

“You playing Clarke?” Harper asked.

“Yeah Clarke, are you going to play?” She felt another voice whisper in her ear, sending a shiver down her spine.

_Bellamy._

She turned to look up at him and he fixated her with a serious stare.

“Sure,” She smiled and stood up. Harper shouting, “Go girl,” from behind her. 

“I’m coming!” Called Maya following behind them. 

Clarke and Maya sat down at one end of the circle, and Bellamy sat at the other next to Murphy. She saw Jasper sit down next to Wells and he blew a kiss a Maya.

Echo also joined the group and Emori sat down next to Clarke and muttered that she would cut a bitch who tried to kiss Murphy.

“Rules are simple,” Murphy stated loudly, “Whoever the bottle lands on, the person who spun it must kiss them.”

A few of the boys high fived each other and Clarke saw Maya roll her eyes.

“Immature,” She muttered.

“I’ll go first,” Murphy said moving to spin the bottle. Instead of letting go of the bottle for it to spin, Murphy moved the bottle with his hands so it landed directly on Emori.  

“Hey that’s cheating,” A girl shouted and Emori shot her daggers.

“It’s my birthday; I can cheat if I want to,” Murphy sang back and crawled on his hands and knees towards Emori. Upon reaching her he put both his hands on either side of her face and planted a sloppy kiss right on her on lips.

“Niceee,” Jasper called over sarcastically, “You’re meant to kiss the girl, not eat her.”

Murphy flipped him the bird and moved back into his position swaying slightly.

The next person went and it landed on a beautiful girl, a girl that if Clarke wasn’t seeing Bellamy she definitely wouldn’t think twice about hooking up with her. The boy who had spun the bottle was lanky and awkward, a blush appeared on his cheeks as he moved over to the girl and he timidly kissed her on her cheek.

“Man you missed out on that one!” Murphy said and whistled, a few boys nodded along with him in agreement.  

The bottle quickly moved up through the circle, each person taking their go and then suddenly it was Echo’s turn. She didn’t waste any time and the bottle span a few times before landing on Wells. His eyes got wide and he looked to Bellamy who gave him a head nod.

Wells must have been looking at him to check if it was okay if he kissed her.

 _Bro code,_ Clarke thought and rolled her eyes.

 

Echo stared at Wells for a few moments as if debating whether or not to kiss him. Then she shrugged her shoulders, got up and walked over to Wells. 

She wrapped an arm round his neck quickly and then angled herself so Bellamy’s end of the circle got a full view of her over the top kiss with him. Once she finished she flipped her hair over her shoulder and walked back to her spot.

Clarke kept her cool.

When It came to Emori’s turn she was hesitant to spin the bottle, but with a few teasing words off Murphy she pulled her tongue out at him and span the bottle as fast as she could. The bottle span for a lot longer than it should have, but when it slowed down, it came full circle and landed straight on Clarke. A few people gasped, others murmured “Finally.”

Clarke looked at Bellamy who was staring at the bottle with wonder, feeling her gaze upon him he looked back up at her.

He smirked and raised his eyebrow at her, as if daring her to do it.

She winked at him, watching as his face turned from cocky to surprise, clearly not expecting her to do it.

She turned to Emori, “Wanna show them how it’s done?”

Emori clocked on to what she was suggesting,

“If they want a show, let’s give them a show.”

Clarke smiled and leaned in slowly, using her hand to cup Emori’s face and angling their bodies so the boys had a great view of the kiss. She lowered her lips until they connected with Emori’s and kissed her slowly. After a few seconds of that, Clarke deepened the kiss.

They didn’t use tongue but it looked they were.

“Damn”

“This is so hot”

She heard whispers behind her.

After a few minutes they broke apart and everyone was silent, staring at them. She looked at Bellamy who was staring at her in half amusement, half shock. Suddenly someone clapped, and then other people started to join in.

“That image is never going to leave my brain,” Murphy muttered wide eyed. ”Best game ever.”

“Shut up Murphy,” Emori called over to him. “Let’s get on with the game.”

It took a while for everyone to calm down but once they did, it was Clarke's turn. She spun the bottle, secretly hoping for it to land on Bellamy.

It landed on Wells.

“Why does he get all the hot girls?” A scrawny floppy haired boy pouted, and Bellamy sent him an evil glare shutting him up.

She gave Wells a friendly smile and went up to him.

“You having fun?” He asked with a glint in his eye.

“The best fun,” She laughed and moved to kiss his cheek and only his cheek.

“That’s cheating!” Murphy called at us like he was about to have our heads.

“I drank one of your disgusting drinks, I’m sure you can let this one slide,” She replied.

He thought about it for a second, well it might have been a second for him in his drunken stupor, but for us it was about 4 minutes.

“I’ll allow it,” He nodded at her and she moved back to her seat with a giggle.

The game moved on pretty quickly after that, some getting the kisses they wanted; Maya and Jasper. Some not getting the ones they wanted; Wells and Jasper. Two girls landed on Bellamy and they couldn’t contain their excitement, Clarke tried not to let it bother her but she felt the same kind of jealous feeling she had felt around Echo swirling around inside of her.

Bellamy looked at her gauging her reaction, but even though Clarke wasn’t feeling okay with the kisses, she didn’t let it show. Bellamy surprised her by just pecking them on the lips quickly and getting it over with. A few of the boys had kissed Clarke, some being timid and just giving her a quick kiss. But one of them was definitely too into it and he had grabbed the back of her head and tried to shove his tongue down her throat.

She heard Bellamy growl at him to stop and he quickly did, hurrying back to his seat but not without throwing her a wink as he left.

Next it was Bellamy’s turn and Clarke said a quick prayer in her head, hoping it would land on her.

Unfortunately for her, it didn’t.

The bottle spun around about 3 times and came to sudden stop in front of Echo.

 Her stomach dropped and the circle grew eerily quite, the people surrounding them obviously knowing about Bellamy’s history with her.

Echo looked back a Clarke with a smug smile on her face, and it made her want to run up to Echo and punch her. Bellamy caught the look and narrowed his eyes at her.

Murphy laughed loudly breaking the silence, “This is great.”

“Murphy, be quiet,” Emori said.

“What?” He snorted. “I mean what are the odds of this happening?”

Bellamy ignored them and looked back at Clarke with a smile.

“I know the bottle landed on Echo, but the whole reason I played this stupid game was so I could kiss this really awesome girl I recently met,” He said and Clarke felt the heat rising to her cheeks. “So I’m going to pretend that that’s who the bottle landed on, and do just that.”

Clarke saw Echo’s face fall and Bellamy started to crawl towards her, his eyes never leaving her face. She gulped in some air because she was beginning to feel like she couldn’t breathe. Soon he was close to her, close enough that she could feel his warm breath hitting her skin.

“I’ve wanted to do this all night,” He muttered and leaned in close.

Clarke didn’t want to wait for his lips to hit hers; she too had wanted to do this tonight. Instead, she inched upwards meeting him halfway and their lips connected. It was soft and slow at first and it sent tingling sensations all the way up her body, but she wanted more. She nipped his bottom lip and felt his mouth open as he gasped, with out asking for permission she slowly slipped her tongue inside his mouth meeting his and he let out a small grown.

She was vaguely aware of the shouts of delight and claps coming from around them, but she couldn’t focus on them. Not when Bellamy was kissing her, because when he was kissing her, Clarke wasn’t sure which way was up or which way was down. She was completely lost in him.

His hands moved to the side of her face, pushing themselves into her hair and she whimpered against his mouth.

“Guys get a room,” She heard Emori call, breaking her trance. “You look like you’re about to have sex right here on this carpet.”

She broke away from Bellamy and lent her head against his forehead.

“Damn,” He said staring at her, his expression serious and his voice shaky.

She didn’t reply, she couldn’t.

Her chest was rising and falling fast and all she wanted to do was grab him again and kiss him.

_Pull yourself together Clarke._

Bellamy pulled away from her and sat down next to her, wrapping his arm around her and pulling her into him.

“Aw you guys are so cute!” Maya exclaimed. “Let me document this.”

She stood up and pulled her phone out, “Smile.”

Clarke smiled up into the phone, her heart still racing. She heard the familiar click from the phone signalling she just took a picture.

“I’ll send it too you,” Miya said smiling down the phone.

The night went pretty smoothly from there and now that Bellamy had kissed her, he suddenly found excuses to keep on kissing her as the night went on. He kissed her every time he brought her a drink, or when they were sat down chatting to people. He kissed her during a game of suck and blow, where he purposefully dropped the card from his mouth and leant straight in. She couldn’t complain, she liked his kisses a lot.

They made her breathless and tingly.

The people she met were all lovely and welcoming to her and she had made fast friends with the girls from Bellamy’s friendship group. This wasn’t like the parties her mother forced her to attend, she didn’t have to watch what she said or pretend to smile. She fit in here, it felt like she belonged.

As the night wore on and the constant supply of drinks was given to her, she had managed to become moderately wasted. Not enough that she couldn’t stand up or didn’t know what she was doing, but wasted to a point where the world seemed to spin and she laughed at everything even if it wasn’t funny.

Bellamy upon noticing this decided it was time for her to go home.

“I don’t want to goo Bellamyyy,” She had whined at him and he laughed.

“Clarke, if you drink anymore we’re going to be taking a trip to the hospital.”

“Can’t I just stay here,” She hiccupped.

He looked down at her, “You sure you want to stay? I can phone a cab and take you home if you want.”

“I want to stay,”

“Okay, you can take my room,” He said and interlocked his fingers with her pulling her after him.

She stumbled a few times and when they reached the stairs, Bellamy knew there was no way she could climb them in her state.

“Come here,” He muttered as she looked up at him goofily. He reached down and looped his arm under her legs, picking her up bridal style.

She squeaked at him and then laughed.

“You’re so pretty you know that?” She slurred.

Bellamy chuckled.

“I think the terms you’re looking for princess are hot, sexy or handsome,” He explained.

“No,” She murmured, “I like pretty better.”

“Of course you do.”

He shook his head in amusement and walked towards his bedroom. He set her down on the floor outside of it and held her until she regained her balance. Feeling satisfied that she was standing comfortably on two feet, he opened the door for her to walk in.

She looked around the room in amazement.

“But..” She trailed off, “It’s so clean!”

 “I’m not a slob,” He said slightly offended.

“No but you’re a guy, and most guys rooms are filthy.”

“Right,” He muttered moving over to his draws and pulling out a large top from it.

“Here,” He said handing the top to Clarke. “You can change into this if you want.”

She took the material from his hands and looked down at it. Without making a move to go in the bathroom, she pulled her dress up and Bellamy quickly turned around so he was facing away from her.

He heard her pulling at the fabric for a few minutes.  

“Bellamy?” Came her voice after a couple of seconds.

“Yeah?” His voice came out strained.

“I need your help.”

He looked slowly back over to her and stifled a laugh. She had pulled the dress right up over her head but the top part was still stuck on her shoulders. Averting his gaze away from her exposed body, he walked over to her and grabbed the bottom of the dress pulling it completely off. Her hair was now messed up over her face and he could see a small blush on her cheeks.

“Thanks,” She mumbled in embarrassment.

He moved the hair from her face and she stared up at him with wide set eyes. He felt a stir in his pants as he realised how close he was standing to her exposed skin, only covered by underwear. He was human and he also liked sex, of course he couldn’t stand their and feel nothing.

But when he remembered her lips on his it nearly set him over the edge, he had never liked kissing a girl as much as he liked kissing Clarke, and damn was she a good kisser.

His eyes kept flickering from hers down to her lips at the memory and Clarke caught on, seeing the obvious lust in his eyes.

 If she hadn’t have had alcohol that night she wouldn’t have done it, she would never have been so brave if she was sober. But the alcohol only fuelled her to do something she already wanted to do.

She reached up snaking her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her. He didn’t resist and smacked his lips straight on to hers. The kiss wasn’t like the ones downstairs, they weren’t surrounded by people. They were alone in his room and Clarke was stood there in nothing but her underwear.

There was no caution to the kiss, instead it was urgent and rushed, like they couldn’t get enough of each other.

She felt Bellamy push her against the wall, the cold shocking her exposed skin. His hands were in a tangle in her hair and hers were tugging at his top. He broke away from her for a few seconds and tore his top away from his body; she took a second to appreciate the hard lines of his abs and muscles that the shirt had been hiding. She didn’t get long to look at him because his lips were soon back on hers, hard and desperate.

Her hands made contact with his body and he gasped, she explored his body greedily. He pulled slightly at her hair and she inhaled sharply, parting her mouth and giving Bellamy’s tongue the access he wanted. He moved one hand down to her hip and deepened the kiss, she moaned into his mouth.

She wanted more and so did he.

He tore away from her mouth and trailed kisses down her jaw line, moving to her neck. Her chest was rising rapidly and all of her hairs were standing on end. She grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled slightly getting his attention, he came back up to eye level and she turned and moved him so he was the one with his back against the wall.

She in turn left a trail of kisses down his torso and stopped at the waistband of his jeans, coming back up she kissed his lips.

“I want you Bellamy,” She purred down his ear, going back to kissing his neck.

“What?” He moaned, barely focusing.

She stopped kissing him and whispered back down his ear.

“I want you to fuck me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Clarke what are you doing?!! 
> 
> Haha, hope you guys liked this chapter. xx


	8. Chapter 8

_I want you to fuck me._

He instantly gripped her shoulders and pulled her away from him, staring down at her wide eyed.

_Did I just hear that right?_

“What did you say?” He asked her, unsure of himself.

“You heard me,” She said seductively, peeking at him from under her eyelashes. “I want you to fuck me.”

_Fuck, those words sound so hot coming from her mouth._

He was so turned on right now and he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. A low growl emitted from the back of his throat and he grabbed her shoulders and spun her around so she was back against the wall.

She let out a small gasp and Bellamy’s hands instantly knotted themselves into her hair. He pulled her towards him and smashed his lips against hers. She moaned into his mouth and he felt a rush of desire course through him. He grabbed the backs of her legs and using the wall for support, lifted her up to him, her legs wrapping around his waste as he did so.

He moved away from the wall once she was comfortably in his grip and moved towards the bed, laying her down carefully on top of it. He only broke the kiss to move his lips to the base her neck, planting sweet kisses along it.

He felt like all his Christmas’s had come early.

She was heavily panting and when Bellamy pulled his mouth from her neck to look at her, he could see the desire in her eyes and it nearly sent him over the edge. His erection was now obvious underneath the denim of his jeans, a feeling that wasn’t the most comfortable. Clarke trailed her fingers from the top of his torso and moved them down so they rested on the waistband of his jeans, pulling at them teasingly.

She took a moment to unbutton his jeans, fumbling slightly. But it was enough of a pause for Bellamy’s thoughts to rationalise.

_What are you doing Bellamy?_

 The thought came out of nowhere and it felt like a bucket of ice cold water was suddenly being splashed over him.

Clarke moved quickly to pull his jeans down but his hands automatically went to her wrists, grasping them and stopping her in her tracks.

“What’s wrong?” She whispered breathlessly, looking at him with a slight frown on her face.

He groaned and moved away from her.

He wanted this, wanted _her_ so badly.

But he knew he couldn’t continue to do this with her, not with the state she was in. Don’t get him wrong; there had been plenty of times that Bellamy had had a few drunken nights of passion with many different girls.

But tonight couldn’t be one of them, not with her.

“Bellamy?” She asked, not knowing the fight that was currently underway inside of Bellamy’s head. The current fight he was having with himself on whether to continue this or stop.

“We can’t do this Clarke,” He said with obvious frustration, the latter of his choices clearly winning. “Not tonight.”

“Why?” She asked her voice dripping with confusion.

“I just don’t think this is a good idea.”

_Did I really just say that?_

He felt like such an idiot for turning her down, hell he never turned anyone down. But as much as he was turned on right now and as much as he would love nothing more than to rip off her underwear and have his way with her, it wouldn’t be right. She’d had a lot to drink and that was probably influencing her decision more than she would like to admit it was. This wasn’t like her and Bellamy had more respect for her than to just go along with it.

He would sleep with her when she wanted him too and when she was sober enough to make that decision, but until then, and as much as it pained him to say no, he would have to wait.

She stared at him for a few seconds unsure of what he was saying, then after a beat she quickly turned away from him, moving to the edge of the bed in silence.

“Clarke?” He pushed softly.

“Go away Bellamy,” Her tone of voice was harsh, hurt. “I’m fine, I’m just tired.”

“Please talk to me.”

“It’s fine.” She repeated again. “I get it; you’re obviously not attracted to me in that way.”

“What?!” He exclaimed. “No, that’s not the case at all.”

_How could she even think I wasn’t attracted to her? Did she not hear the noises I was making when she was all over me?_

He walked over to her and lay on his knees in front of her, urging her to look at him.  She did slowly.

“Of course I’m attracted to you!” He said.

“Then why did you stop?”

“Clarke, look at me.” He said and pointed downwards, a clear erection showing from his earlier excitement. “I’m clearly attracted to you otherwise this wouldn’t be happening right now.”

Her lips tilted up into a small satisfied smirk.

“I pushed you away because I have more respect for you, than to sleep with you right now,” He continued. “You’ve been drinking and I don’t want you to wake up in the morning regretting this. When you wake up tomorrow sober and you still want to do this, then great, let me know. But I’m not going to do this with you tonight, especially when you told me a while back that you wanted to take this slow.”

The words seemed to register in her brain and he saw her face turning a reddish colour.

“Oh my god,” She stated throwing her hands on her face, hiding it. “I’m so sorry; I just jumped on you like some wild animal.”

He chuckled and reached up to remove her hands, she looked cute with her face all red and her eyes set open widely.

“You can do that to me whenever you want, I’m not complaining,” He smirked, “But right now, I think you should get some sleep.”

She nodded and climbed into the bed, curling up under the covers.

“Will you stay with me?” She asked innocently and Bellamy groaned. She was making this a lot harder than it should have been, but when he looked at her lay there in his bed, he knew he couldn’t say no.

At least he didn’t want to, but he was still so turned on that he needed to go get a shower to cool off.

“I need to get a shower, but I’ll join you as soon as I’m out if that’s okay?”  He asked.

She didn’t reply with her words, she sort of nodded and curled deeper into the covers with a sigh. He smiled and then turned to go towards the shower.

-

After returning from the shower, feeling a lot more refreshed, he stopped at the end of the bed and looked over at Clarke. She was tangled in the sheets sleeping soundly.

As he stared at her a million thoughts attacked his head, the most prominent being;

_What the fuck have I gotten myself into?_

He was beginning to feel like what he was doing to her was wrong, but he had wanted to get out this town so badly that it had began to cloud his judgement. It wasn’t like he had just hooked up with her over night and won the bet, which would have been much easier than what he was doing now.

Because to do what he needed to do with Clarke, took effort and time. It meant that he had to put the work in and it meant that he had to get to know her. It meant that somewhere along the line of trying to sleep with her, he was slowly beginning to catch feelings for her.

And that made this whole thing a lot messier than it needed to be.

He needed to think this out some more and hatch a plan to hurry this along; he needed to get this over and done with before it became _any_ messier.

  _Before she becomes too attached and can’t let go._

Or was he feeling like this because he was scared it might be him having trouble letting her go?

He wasn’t sure; it was something he could think about tomorrow.

He grabbed a sheet from one of his draws and made his way to the bedroom door. She had told him to stay, but she was clearly drunk and he didn’t want to stay in the bed with her, only for her not to remember and freak out when she awoke in the morning. He wouldn’t do anything that could cause this plan to become delayed. He needed to finish it and fast, so heaving one last frustrated sigh, he opened the door and made his downstairs to sleep on the couch.

\--

Clarke awoke with a groan, opening her eyes groggily.

_I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck._

Once her eyes focused and the blurriness disappeared, she realised the surroundings she could see weren’t what she was used too.

_This isn’t my room.._

She sat up quickly in a panic and suddenly wished she hadn’t, when the pounding in her head started. She groaned again throwing her head in her hands.

Once the pounding in her head had moved to a dull ache, she slowly lifted her head to take a look around the room. It wasn’t a room she had been in before because she didn’t recognise it, her eyes scanned for any evidence of who the owner of the room could be and they fell on a photograph in a frame on the bedside table.

It was of a boy and a girl.

The boy she instantly recognised, but the girl she wasn’t so sure who it was. They both had the same skin tone, dark hair and dark eyes that shone brightly as they both laughed at something behind the camera

_The girl must be Bellamy’s sister, Octavia._

 It couldn’t be anyone else, they looked too much alike.

_So this must be Bellamy’s room, but how the fuck did I get here?_

Another surge of panic sieged her and she quickly looked under the covers to see that she was in her underwear.

_Why am I in my underwear? Did we have se-_

She didn’t want to continue with that thought, mortification already taking over.

_What the fuck did I do last night?_

She threw herself back on the pillow and groaned again when the pounding came back.

She heard the sound of the door creaking from beside her, so she pulled the covers around her quickly and looked towards it. Bellamy was backing into it slowly, holding something. He tiptoed in with a look of concentration on his face, but then he caught sight of her and stopped in his tracks.

“You’re awake,” He stated.

She grunted in response and he laughed.

“I thought you might have a killer headache, so I brought up some aspirin and water.”

Her mouth salivated at the thought of the water, only now realising that it was really dry.

She reached her hands out desperately for the water and Bellamy passed it to her. She drank quickly feeling the contents go down her throat, refreshing her.  

“Thirsty huh?”

She nodded and he handed her the aspirin. She popped two and finished of the water, lying back down on the bed.

“Bellamy?” She asked.

“Yeah?”

“What… err..” She trailed off unsure of how to broach the subject, her face heating up as she did so. “What happened last night?”

“You don’t remember?” He scrunched up his face in confusion, looking slightly defeated.

She shook her head. The last thing she remembered was dancing with Murphy stupidly, after that her memory was pretty much blank.

“Not much,” He said. “You just got a little too drunk. You didn’t want to go home so I let you stay in here.”

“So we didn’t…”

“Didn’t what?”

“Have sex?” She said her face the colour of a tomato. “I’m in my underwear.”

He smirked a little. “No princess, we didn’t have sex. I gave you a t-shirt to wear but you complained that you were too hot and that you wanted to sleep like that, so you took your clothes off and climbed into the bed. I promise I didn’t look.”

She felt a rush of relief course through her but she nodded meekly at him.

“Okay.”

He moved to the wardrobe and pulled out a t-shirt for her.

“Here,” He said and handed it to her. She threw it on hurriedly, keeping the quilt around her so as not to flash Bellamy any exposed skin.  Bellamy smirked at her actions knowing just how much he had seen of her last night.

“How are you feeling?” He asked when she had gotten the t-shirt on.

“Like shit,” She groaned. “Every time I move I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“That’s probably because of the shots you took off of Murphy.”

She felt queasy again only this time the feelings didn’t pass, she jumped up from the bed and ran towards the bathroom as fast as she could, throwing herself around the toilet bowl and heaving the contents of her stomach into it.

Bellamy came in a few seconds later and she felt him grab her hair from her face holding it behind her head.

“This is gross,” She mumbled. “You don’t have to be in here for this.”

“I don’t mind,” He laughed. “I’ve seen worse from my sister growing up.”

She tried to smile but she heaved again and more sick came out.

Once she finally felt like she couldn’t throw up anymore, she turned and laid her back against the toilet, Bellamy letting go of her hair as she did so.

“Did that make you feel any better?”

“No,” She groaned “I think I’ve got alcohol poisoning from Murphy’s shots.”

“I think it’s just a bad hangover.” He laughed.

She looked up to scowl at him, only just noticing that he was fully dressed in his work clothes, the Trikru logo showing on his shirt.

“Have you got work?”

He grimaced, “Yeah.”

“What time is it?”

“7am”

She closed her eyes with tiredness.

“How are you even up right now?”

“I didn’t drink as much as you. Which is lucky really because Monty was smashed and asked me to swap my evening shift with his morning one.”

“You’re crazy,” She said and made a move to stand up but a rush of dizziness enveloped her and she swayed at little on her feet. Bellamy reached his arms out to grab her waist steadying her.

“You need to lie down.”

“I’m fine,” She mumbled. “Just call me a cab.”

He peered down at her with curiosity.

“Why?” He asked. “You’re welcome to stay here until I get back, or until you’re ready to leave.”

“Are you sure?” She replied surprised.

He nodded.

“Okay,” She nodded. “I’m probably going to go back to sleep then, I think I’m still drunk.”

He laughed and guided her back into the bedroom towards the bed. Once there she crawled in and buried herself under the covers.

“Hold on one sec.” She heard Bellamy say then she heard him walk out the door. Sleep was beginning to take over and her eyelids were growing heavy.

“Here,” She heard him say as he came back in.

She opened her eyes with great effort and saw him place a new unopened toothbrush and another glass of water on the side table.

“For when you want to brush your teeth and for when you get thirsty.”

“Thanks,” She mumbled her eyelids closing again; she couldn’t get herself to focus because she was so tired.

She vaguely felt his lips touch her forehead and heard him say, “I’ll see you later princess.”

But she didn’t remember anything after that because she fell into a deep sleep.

Clarke spent the majority of the rest of the day in bed sleeping, and if she wasn’t sleeping she was getting to the know the toilet better as she puked her guts up in to it.

She hadn’t had a hangover like this in forever, and she probably wouldn’t let herself have another one like this in a while. They were the worst.

When she felt like this she either spent the whole day in bed either sleeping it off or watching Netflix with a whole load of junk food. She didn’t even have the energy to get dressed and go home.

When it came to around four in the afternoon, Clarke managed to pull herself away from the bed. Her rumbling stomach had awoken her from her sleep and she was really craving something she knew probably wasn’t good for her. She opened the door to Bellamy’s room and listened out carefully for any sounds. She knew no one was in because Murphy had knocked on the bathroom door earlier when she was puking to check on her and to say he would be out for the remainder of the day. She had also heard Echo leave about 2 hours ago.

Still she listened out just to be sure as she was only wearing Bellamy’s shirt and it just about covered her bum, she had no energy to find pants to put on. Feeling satisfied that the house was indeed empty she made her way down into the kitchen to look for some food. She settled on making her self some toast, thinking the bread would soak up most the alcohol in her system, so she popped some of the bread in the toaster and went rooting for a plate.

She eventually found them in the bottom cupboard and reached down to get one, her ass sticking out in the air.

“Who are you?” She heard a womanly voice call out and Clarke jumped from the sheer shock of it and bumped her head on the cupboard. She thought no one was here and there hadn’t been when she came downstairs, but she also hadn’t heard the door go.

“Ow!” She muttered rubbing the spot where she had just hurt and turned around to see who was talking.

It was Bellamy’s sister.

_Fuck!_

She had forgotten he had said she was due back today, but he hadn’t told her what time he was expecting her.

Clarke stared at her for a few seconds dumbfounded still rubbing the spot on her head when Octavia raised an eyebrow at her, still waiting for an answer.

“Oh!” She exclaimed and moved forward towards her, taking her hand off of her head and offering it out to for her to shake. “I’m sorry, I’m Clarke. You must be Octavia.”

Octavia looked down at her hand and then back up at her ignoring it. “What are you doing here? Are you a new tenant?”

She dropped her hand awkwardly and looked at her in confusion.

_She thinks I live here?_

Octavia gave her the once over, her eyes stopping when she reached the t-shirt she was wearing and Clarke felt her face heat up in embarrassment at the realisation that she was stood there with no pants on.

Something seemed to click for Octavia and she smiled wryly at her. “Oh I see. You’re one of _those_ girls.”

“One of those girls?” Clarke echoed in confusion.

“Where’s Bellamy?” Octavia asked ignoring her once again.

“He had to work.”

“He didn’t mention he had to work to me.”

“He wasn’t supposed to be working until tonight, but he swapped shifts with someone and decided to work this morning instead. He should be back about half 5.” Clark explained.

“Does he know you’re still here?” Octavia asked. “Because I don’t think he’ll be too happy to see you still at his house when he gets home.”

“He said I could stay as long as I needed to.”

“Yeah, that’s something he says to be nice.” Octavia said looking at her with pity. “You should really get changed and go before he gets back.”

“Erm, Okay.”

She wasn’t really sure what was happening here, but Octavia clearly thought she was someone she wasn’t.

“I fixed the tire,” She heard a deep voice say and a man joined Octavia in the kitchen. He stopped short of seeing Clarke and this time she really did want the ground to swallow her whole. Her face was bright red, a stark contrast to her pale skin as she stood there in just a top and underwear.

“Oh.” He said clearly not expecting to see her there.

“This is one of Bellamy’s girls,” Octavia explained to him and she could see the understanding flash through his eyes. “I see nothings changed.”

“Look Octavia,” Clarke said slightly irate. “I’m not sure what it is that you’re implying here, but I’m not any kind of girl to Bellamy. We’re just dating and seeing how things go, nothing more and nothing less.”

Octavia turned to Clarke in surprise. “What do you mean you’re dating?”

“You know, going out on dates, getting to know each other, that sort of thing.”

_I have no clue what is happening here._

“You mean Bellamy has hung out with you more than once?” The shock didn’t leave her face, even when Clarke nodded a yes in reply. Both Octavia and the man seemed to stare at her like she was an alien who had just landed on earth.

“I don’t know what’s happening here, but if you don’t mind I’m going to go upstairs and put on something a little less revealing.” As she said this both their eyes travelled back down to her pant less legs and Clarke grumbled before turning away from them and scurrying back up the stairs.

-

“Their _dating?”_ Octavia said incredulously to Lincoln as soon as Clarke had left the room. “What does that even mean? Bellamy doesn’t date. He hasn’t had a girlfriend in years.”

“Maybe he grew up a little bit whilst we were away,” Lincoln offered and Octavia threw him a look that said ‘Are you serious?’. He laughed and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and leaning his chin on her shoulder.

“We weren’t gone that long.”

“Three weeks is still long, especially in Bellamy time. Maybe he finally found a girl worth dating.”

“She’s pretty.” Octavia nodded in agreement.

“I don’t think that’s the only reason he’s dating her though,” He laughed and felt her shiver.

“I just find this whole situation strange, he’s never seen a girl more than once before.”

And he hasn’t. Octavia was used to the revolving door of girls that Bellamy had brought home. He had never introduced her to a girl, not since he was younger and he dated a girl called Gina. Their relationship lasted a while, and majority of the time it was good, but the rest wasn’t so pretty. They had a pretty messy breakup, though he never told Octavia why, he took it pretty hard and he was never the same with girls after that.

 He never dated anyone after her, just hooked up girls and then never saw them again.

Well he didn’t see them again, but Octavia did. She had to deal with the constant questions of ‘Why hasn’t he called me yet?’ ‘Is he ever going to call to me?’ ‘Does he even like me?’

She’d even had to console a few that were crying, completely devastated by her brothers lack of interest in them. 

She felt a little guilty putting, Clarke _–was that her name?-_ in same category as the others, but what else was she supposed to think? She comes home to see her brother and instead finds a girl half naked rummaging around in his cupboards. She could have handled seeing her a lot better sure, but she was so surprised to see her that she was caught of guard.

“Can you smell burning?” Lincoln asked her breaking her thoughts.

“Huh?”

“Burning,” He repeated, “Can you smell it?”

Octavia turned around to see the toaster smoking and she quickly popped it up to see two pieces of burnt bread inside.

“I think I scared her off before she could finish making it.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” He chuckled from behind her.

She turned around and lightly smacked him on his arm.

“I’m not that scary, I was just surprised to see her here.”

“Not as surprised as she was to see you I bet.”

“Probably,” She muttered. “Bellamy’s at work, he finishes in about an hour, so I say we wait for him.”

Lincoln nodded and leant down to peck her lightly on the lips.

“Boy this is going to be fun.” He muttered.

“Will the two of you ever get along?” She asked with a sigh.

“Hey,” He held his hands up. “It’s not me who has the problem, he just doesn’t like me.”

“It’s not you exactly that he doesn’t like. He wouldn’t like any guy I dated.”

“I don’t care what he thinks; I only care what you think.”

She reached her arms round his neck and brought his face down closer to hers.

“Well I think that I love you very much,”

“I think I love you very much too.” He smiled and captured her mouth in his sweetly.

They pulled apart at the sound of footsteps approaching.

Octavia turned to stare at Clarke who had just walked back into the kitchen sheepishly. Her hair looked less dishevelled and she had put on a pair of joggers.

“You’re toast burned.” Octavia stated nodding her head in the direction of the toaster.

“Look,” She started licking her lips. “I’m just going to make a fresh batch because I’m hungover and need the energy, and then I’m going to go get my stuff and get out of your hair.”

Octavia nodded and Clarke walked past her towards the toaster, pulling the burnt toast out of it and putting it in the bin. She felt a light squeeze on her thigh and she looked up to see Lincoln nodding his head at Clarke. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

“Clarke?” She called and Clarke looked back at her after putting two new slices in the toaster. “I’m sorry if I came across as rude back there, I was just surprised to see you here. Me and Lincoln didn’t expect to see anyone here other than Murphy or Bellamy. You don’t have to go, in fact if Bellamy asked you stay then I’m sure he would want you to be here when he gets back. We’re just going to wait until gets back; you’re welcome to wait with us.”

She seen Lincoln lift up his hand in a greeting from the corner of her eye and Clarke smiled back a small smile. She looked back towards Octavia with the same smile and nodded. “Yeah okay, that would be great.”

Octavia smiled back warmly at her, “We’ll be in the living room.”

Clarke nodded once more and Octavia grabbed Lincoln’s hand pulling him out the kitchen and into the living room.

\--

_Why is this happening to me?_

She thought as they left.

_Why, today of all days did I have to meet Bellamy’s sister, hungover to fuck and half naked in his kitchen?_

She couldn’t believe her luck; honestly these types of things only seemed to happen to her.

She buttered her toast and decided to eat in the kitchen before she joined them.

_Why did you agree to stay?_

She wasn’t sure what possessed her to say that she would, like this afternoon wasn’t awkward already. Now she had to sit in the living room with Bellamy’s little sister and her boyfriend and attempt to make small talk. She wasn’t good at small talk and by the looks of it Octavia wasn’t really fond of Clarke.

After finishing up her toast, she cleaned up after herself and made her way into the living room where Octavia was giggling at something that Lincoln said. Their giggling stopped when they noticed her and she sat down on the couch feeling uncomfortable.

“So I take it Murphy had his party last night?”

Clarke nodded, “Yeah he got smashed, though I think he outlasted me.”

There were no signs that there had been a party here last night, the house had been cleaned and looked spotless.

“Sounds like Murphy,” Octavia laughed. “He gets the most drunk out of everyone but manages to outlast everyone. Did he have a good time?”

“Yeah.”

After a few minutes of silence Lincoln coughed and Octavia piped up again.

“So what do you do Clarke?”

“I’m at college at the moment.”

“You go to college?” She asked shocked again.

“Yeah..” Clarke trailed off.

“God, I am so sorry.” She muttered, “I keep judging you based on the usual girls Bellamy used to hook up with, and I shouldn’t do that. I’m sorry.”

Although a little stung by it, Clarke accepted the apology understanding why. She had already discovered that Bellamy had been with a lot of girls, she could understand why she was being put in the same category.

“I take it none of them went to college?” She queried.

“No,” Octavia laughed. “What is it you’re studying?”

“Art.” She replied.

“No way!” Octavia lent forward, “Lincolns really into all stuff, aren’t you babe?”

Lincoln laughed at her, “Yeah you could say that.”

“Yeah, it’s a big passion of mine; I’m volunteering at the Shadow Valley Art Gallery too.”

“Seriously?” Octavia exclaimed, eyes wide. “Lincoln-“

“What do you think about the art gallery?” Lincoln cut her off and she threw him a strange look.

“It’s the best in the state.”

“What about the art work they display? Do you like it? Be honest.”

“I love it. I think some of the work displayed is done by some very talented people. However, I think I’d like to see more of a variety of the different artworks displayed. They seem to display artworks that follow the same theme; it would be nice if there were lots of different pieces displayed to add some shock value when you visit.”

“Interesting,” He said sitting back. “It’s one of my favourite places to go to, especially when I feel like I need some inspiration for some of my work.”

“I like to go there sometimes to just sit and collect my thoughts,” She agreed. “It has this calming quality about the place.”

He nodded with a genuine smile on his face.

“Okay art birds,” Octavia interrupted with a roll of her eyes. “Can we talk about something that I actually understand?”

Clarke giggled and they moved onto a different subject, talking about Octavia’s holiday. She told Clarke of all the places she had seen and how much she had enjoyed it. Clarke listened in awe at the stories she told and Octavia seemed to warm to the girl the more time she spent in her company. They laughed at the same things and found they actually had a lot in common. Lincoln mainly just sat back and let girls talk; only joining in to give his expertise on a certain subject. Clarke thought he was quite reserved but pretty much a nice guy, she couldn’t see anything bad that would make Bellamy dislike him. But then again she guessed it wasn’t to do with who he was as a person and more to do with him dating his sister. 

During one of their conversations, they heard the door open and Octavia sat upright excitedly clearly expecting her brother, only it was Echo who had walked through to the living room. She stopped dead when she saw Octavia; she opened and closed her mouth like a fish clearly not expecting to see her here. Bellamy must not have told her when she was coming back.

 Octavia’s posture slumped and she glared at Echo.

“Octavia!” Echo squeaked. “I didn’t know you were back.”

“Why would you? It’s not like we speak to each other that much.”

“I know, but I’ve missed seeing you around.”

Octavia’s cheerful voice turned to one of disdain.

“Why would you have missed me? We don’t even like each other.”

“What?” Echo replied faking hurt, “Of course I like you, we-“

“Stop it Echo,” Octavia cut her off, “Bellamy’s not here, you can cut the act and stop sucking up to me.”

Echo stood frozen for a few seconds and looked around the room, Clarke guessed for Bellamy. Once she didn’t catch sight of him, her shoulders slumped and she muttered a “Whatever” to Octavia. Her beady eyes caught on to Clarke and she said her name venomously in greeting before flouncing off upstairs.

Octavia sat back down and looked at Clarke curiously.

“I guess I’m not the only one she doesn’t like.”

“She doesn’t like me because I threw a drink over her yesterday.”

It was silent for a few seconds before Octavia burst out laughing, even Lincoln let out a small chuckle.

“What? Why?”

“She got all crazy about me being here with Bellamy and she called me a whore, she deserved it.”

Octavia still laughing said in between breathes, “I think we’re going to be good friends.”

After a while, Clarke offered to get some drinks, they both politely declined but her throat had begun to feel dry again so she made her excuse and got up to get a bottle of water. On her way she walked past the front door and it opened making her jump. Bellamy came through it and stopped when he saw her, throwing a smile in her direction closing the door behind him.

“You’re still here,” He stated surprised and Clarke felt a horrible feeling run up through her stomach thinking back to her earlier conversation with Octavia.

_“He said I could stay as long as I needed to.”_

_“Yeah, that’s something he says to be nice.” Octavia said looking at her with pity. “You should really get changed and go before he gets back.”_

“Why? don’t you want me here?” She blanched.

“Huh? Of course I do. In fact I was hoping you would still be here because I brought back junk food.” He reached his arm from behind his back and handed her a bag with the McDonalds sign on it. Clarke felt her stomach grumble loudly when she seen it.

“You brought me McDonalds?”

“I figured you would want some type of junk food, I know I do when I’m hungover.”

She snatched the bag greedily off of him. “Oh my god, thankyou! I love you!”

She stopped as the words came out of her mouth and she stared at Bellamy open mouthed, who was staring at her with a smirk on his face.

“I didn’t mean-“She fumbled, “What I meant to say-“

She couldn’t find the words and her face was heating up again.

He chuckled, “I know what you meant princess.”

She let out a huge sigh, “You’re a jackass.”

“You love it,” He smirked down at her and pulled her to him by her waist.

“Can we stop with L word? It’s making me uncomfortable with it just being thrown about all over the place.”

“You’re cute when you’re flustered.”

“I’m not fluster-“She began to shout but was cut off as Bellamy’s lips caught hers mid sentence. She was suddenly glad of Octavia’s intrusion because when she went to get changed, she had managed to sort out her rat’s nest of hair and brushed her teeth with the spare toothbrush.

He nipped her lip lightly and she gasped, opening her mouth for Bellamy to slip his tongue in deepening the kiss. He didn’t let it go too far though and after a couple of minutes he pulled away slowly.

“I’ve been waiting to do that all day.”

She was about to reply when a loud cough caught their attention, they both swivelled to see Octavia standing there with her arms folded and a huge smile on her face.

_Fuck I forgot she was here for a moment then._

“O” He said in surprise and instantly let go of Clarke, grabbing Octavia and pulling her in for a hug. He lifted her up with ease and spun her around, her laughter echoing around the walls.

“God, I’ve missed you big brother.” She said once she had put him down, pulling him in for another hug.

“I didn’t know what time you were due back!”

“I wanted to surprise you.”

 “Well you certainly did that,” He laughed ruffling her hair.

Clarke watched on with intrigue, a smile lighting up her face. She could tell how much they loved each other and how close they were from the smallest of interactions. She liked seeing how Bellamy interacted with his family, how caring and kind he was with her.

Lincoln came into view and when Bellamy caught sight of him, he nodded at Bellamy but Bellamy ignored him instead peering back down at his sister. Clarke slowly moved up to him and tugged at his hand that was hanging loosely at his side, he looked to her with a questioning look and she widened her eyes in the direction Lincoln was stood at, trying to signal at him. He took the hint and looked back up at Lincoln with a sigh; he forced a smile on his face.

“So Lincoln, tell me all about this holiday.”

Lincoln eyebrows shot up in surprise and he nodded quickly at Bellamy, clearly not wanting to waste this opportunity of niceness coming from him and they both walked back into the living room. Octavia upon seeing the exchange between Clarke and Bellamy mouthed a ‘thankyou’ at Clarke, clearly grateful. Then she moved with the boys to join in on the conversation.

Clarke made herself scarce and went back up to the bedroom, wanting to give Bellamy some alone time with his sister so they could catch up. She climbed onto the bed with her McDonalds and sat there in content eating her fries.

\--

Octavia stayed for an hour or so after that, and Clarke stayed upstairs not wanting to intrude on the family reunion. She finished her McDonalds and kept herself entertained by playing games on her phone and texting Raven. The pounding in her hand had stopped thanks to the aspirin but her body was still tired, so when her phone finally ran out of battery she felt her eyelids begin to droop. 

A knock at the door pulled her away from her tiredness.  

“Come in,” She called and rubbed her eyes.

Octavia came in with a smile.

“Hey, did I wake you?”

“No, I was just resting.”

“I came in because I wanted to thankyou for before,” She said genuinely. “Lincoln and my brother haven’t gotten on in a long time, and what you did down there, just made them have a conversation that lasted longer than a few seconds. It wasn’t much, but it was a start, so thankyou.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Clarke said smiling back. “He has to learn to get along with him sometime. It seems to me that Lincoln isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so Bellamy needs to get used to that.”

She laughed at that. “We’re going now, I’ve got a load of unpacking to do and all I want to do is fall into my bed.”

“I know that feeling.”

“I’ve just invited Bellamy over next week for dinner, I would love it if you came too Clarke.”

“Of course I will.”

Octavia smiled and pulled Clarke into a small a hug.

“Well it was lovely meeting you; I’ll see you next week.”

Clarke nodded and Octavia got up from the bed.

“Hey Clarke?” She called as she was leaving the room. “I like you an all, but if you hurt my brother, then you’ll have to deal to me. Okay?”

She had been expecting it.

Especially with the way Bellamy was so protective over her, she knew Octavia would be the same about him.

“I won’t hurt him.”

“Good.” With one last smile, Octavia closed the door behind her leaving Clarke with her thoughts.

_That was one girl she knew she never wanted to get on the wrong side of._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey Octavia!
> 
> Thought it was about time we had a chapter with her in it. :)


	9. Chapter 9

“So how is it going with you and Bellamy?” Harper asked once they’d settled into their seats at the restaurant. She had known she would become good friends with Harper, and they had been texting non stop since the party. Harper had invited her out to get some lunch and Clarke had eagerly agreed.

“I’m not sure, ever since the party he’s been a bit off with me.”

“What do you mean?” Harper asked as she peeked over the menu.

“I don’t know. He’s just off.” She said thinking back to the past couple of days. “One second I’m talking to him and he acts like he’s not listening and then the next he’s all over me.”

“That’s weird.”

“I know. Octavia invited us round for dinner and the first half of the night went amazingly well, but the second half it was like he just switched off. He barely spoke to either of us. I tried to ask him what was wrong but he just snapped at me.”

“Maybe he’s just not used to having a girlfriend. I mean he’s not really done this kind of thing before.”

“I’m not his girlfriend, we’re just dating.” She explained.

“You might as well be, you spend enough time over at his house.” Harper smirked back and it was true. She had spent most her nights there since the party, only returning home to gather the supplies she needed for College. Raven was beginning to think she was moving out and nearly had a full on meltdown, with Clarke having to calm her down with the promise she wasn’t.

“Do you think he’s going off me?” Clarke asked suddenly, dread swarming through her body. “I mean it’s been amazing this past month but now he just seems like he’s not interested.”

Harper picked up her phone off the table and looked it at. Then she moved the phone into Clarke’s line of vision to show her a picture.

“Does this look like the type of guy that isn’t in to you?”

It was the picture Maya had taken from the party, just after her and Bellamy had kissed. Clarke was beaming up at the camera, her cheeks flushed. Bellamy had his arms wrapped round her and instead of looking into the camera; he was staring down at Clarke with a small smile on his face.

“Will you send me that? Maya forgot too.”

“Of course I will.” She said and did something to her phone, Clarke heard the familiar ding and knew she had just sent her the picture. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much Clarke; he’s probably just stressed at work or something.”

“Yeah maybe,” She replied unsure as the waiter came to take their order.

\--

“What happened the other night?” Octavia asked as soon as he picked up the phone.

“What do you mean?” He played dumb.

“When you came for dinner, one minute you were laughing and having a good time, then you got a text off of someone and you’re mood completely changed.”

_She noticed that?_

He sat down on his couch and leant into it, not really wanting to talk about this right now.  

“Oh that.” He said, “Yeah I just got a text from my boss, he was asking me to cover more shifts.”

“So a text from your boss made you turn into an asshole?” She replied dubiously.

“I wasn’t an asshole!” He protested.

“Yes you were you barely said two words to me for the rest of night. Poor Clarke, you nearly bit her head off at one point and she didn’t even do anything wrong.”

He sighed, “I’m sorry O if I came across that way, I didn’t mean too.”

“So what’s going on? I want the truth this time Bellamy.”

“I’m telling the truth! I genuinely got a text off of my boss,” He lied. “I’m just getting frustrated with the amount of hours I’m doing in order to save money. It’s killing me. I barely have time to see anyone or do anything because I’m constantly in work.”

That bit was true, he was sick of working all the hours under the sun. His social life was dwindling and he barely had time to do the things he enjoyed. He thought that by doing all these hours, he would be able to save quicker.

_And maybe stop doing this bet._

“Well take a break Bellamy,” She said softly. “Take a week off and go do something fun.”

“You know I can’t do that O. I’ve got to live and pay rent.”

“You can at least cut down some of your shifts.” She demanded. “If you carry on working so much and acting the way you are, you’re not going to have any friends left to socialise with.” 

“I know.” He agreed.

“Promise me, you’ll cut down some of your shifts Bellamy.”

“I Promise.”

“And make sure you make it up to Clarke. She at least deserves an apology from you.”

“I will.”

“Okay, love you.”

“Love you too,” He said and put the phone down thinking back to the dinner at Octavia’s.

_Ding!_

_His phone made a noise and buzzed in his pocket, telling him he had a text. He pulled it from his back pocket and opened it to see it was from Wells._

**_From: Wells_ **

**_1 Month today._ **

**_Times ticking Bellamy, you any closer to closing this bet? Need an update so I know when I can have your car ;)_ **

_He clicked off it angrily and shoved the phone roughly back into his pocket. He hadn’t realised it had been a month already, things had gone by so quickly. That meant he only had two more months to finish this and Clarke was in no way ready to move onto the next step yet._

_He had tried to up his game, cooking romantic dinners, sitting through hours of boring chick flicks, he’d even put on the moves. But every time he kissed her and it seemed to be going in the direction he wanted, Clarke pushed him away stopping it._

_He ran a hand through his hair frustrated._

_“Hey do you guys want to play charades?” Octavia asked excitedly breaking his thoughts._

_He grumbled in response and Clarke nodded enthusiastically from his side._

_He didn’t really participate in the game, they had all tried to coach him into playing but he wasn’t having any of it, his mind somewhere else. He only gave one word answers to Octavia when she talked to him and he ignored Lincoln completely. He was in a foul mood and he wasn’t sure what the main reason was for it. The fact that Wells had texted him or that this thing with Clarke was becoming way too real for him._

_“Hey are you okay?” Clarke has whispered to him._

_“Fine,” He mumbled back._

_“Are you sure?”_

_He nodded._

_“You know can speak to me about anything right?” She pushed._

_“Why don’t you mind your own business for once Clarke,” He whirled on her. “Focus on your own shit instead of trying to involve yourself with mine.”_

_He saw the hurt dance across her face and he suddenly felt bad. She picked up her glass and got up off the couch moving to the kitchen. The living room had gone silent and he looked up to see both Octavia and Lincoln staring at him._

_“What the hell Bellamy?” Octavia said to him angrily and got up to follow Clarke._

_“You were a bit harsh there,” Lincoln said slowly._

_“I don’t really give a fuck what you think about the situation Lincoln.” He growled and got up off the couch storming out of the house to try and get some air._

_-_

He hadn’t meant to snap at Clarke like that, it was the last thing he would ever want to do to her. But he was in a foul mood and most of his problems lately stemmed from being with her, whether she knew it or not.

He liked her, he knew that. He even allowed himself to admit that he was catching some sort of feelings for her. She was witty and smart and she made him laugh like nobody else had before. Not forgetting the fact that she was drop dead gorgeous. Clarke would be considered by most men as a great catch, someone they could see themselves settling down with.

But Bellamy couldn’t see that for his future, wouldn’t allow himself too.

He only saw two options;

Continue down the route of trying to win this bet, if he succeed he would have the money to go travelling but Clarke would be hurt in the process with him having to end things with her.

Lose the bet or just be done with it and carry on working extra hours to gain the money he needed so he could go travelling. But by doing this he would still have to leave Clarke in order to go on his travels.

Both of his options ended with him not being with her, so why should he wait an extra few years to go when he could be gone in 2 months? That was the way his logic worked and he was fine with it, at least he pretended to be.

He grabbed his phone again sending out two messages.

**To: Princess**

**Hey do you want to come over tonight? X**

**To: Wells**

**I’ve got work at 11.30 tomorrow, come round before hand and we’ll talk.**

It didn’t take long for them to reply.

**From: Wells**

**Took you long enough to reply. See you tomorrow.**

**From: Princess**

**Sure, what time? X**

**To: Princess**

**Say 7? X**

She sent back a quick okay and Bellamy got to work on planning his apology dinner for her.

\--

“You’re staying out again?” Raven asked as Clarke put some fresh clothes into a bag.

“I don’t know yet, I might come home.”

“So why are you putting clothes into your bag then?”

“Just in case I need them.”

“This is so not fair; this new boy toy of yours sees you more than I do.” Raven pouted.

“He’s not my boy toy!” Clarke giggled placing her now packed bag on the floor. Then she moved to wards the mirror. “Will you curl the hair at the back for me? I think I’ve missed a few pieces.” 

Raven nodded and came behind her, picking up the heated curlers and bringing them to her hair.

“When do I even get to meet this guy?” She said glancing at her through the mirror.

“Soon, I promise.”

“Are you going to tell me anything about him yet? I don’t even know his name!”

“Nope,” Clarke replied. “That way if I don’t tell you anything about him, I’m not jinxing anything.”

“Telling me his name doesn’t mean that it’s going to doom your relationship.” Raven rolled her eyes at her friend’s weirdness.

“Stop trying to get me to tell you his name!” She laughed, “I promise you can meet him soon, I’ll arrange something.”

“Fine,” Raven huffed knowing she wouldn’t be able to get Clarke to budge. “You’re done.”

She put the curlers on the side table and Clarke fluffed out her hair.

“You look good.” Raven said honestly, looking at Clarke.

She hadn’t gone all out tonight as she was just going round to his house, but she made an effort with curling her hair that cascaded down her back in loose waves. She wore light blue skinny jeans with some flats and a long sleeved white top, which was slightly tight around her boob area making them look bigger than what they were.

“Thanks,” She smiled. “What are your plans tonight?”

“I’ve got a date!”

Clarke’s eyes went wide, “What?”

“Uh-huh” Raven nodded smugly, “Your girls back on the dating game too!”

“No way!” Clarke exclaimed with a big smile on her face. “That is so great Raven! Who’s the lucky guy?”

“Nope, no way,” Raven shook her head. “If you’re not willing to tell me anything about your guy, I’m not telling you anything about mine!”

“What?” Clarke said pouting.

“It’s not fun is it? Not knowing anything about the guy your best friends dating?”

“Fine,” Clarke grumbled knowing she couldn’t really ask Raven to share details when she was so coy with her own. “Just make sure he treats you good, or I’ll chop his man bits off.”

Raven grimaced at the thought and laughed. “Yeah well remind yours that I’ll do that too and then shove them in a blender.”

“Eww,” Clarke laughed and Raven joined in.

Once there laughter had calmed down, Raven gave her a hug. “Have a good night tonight.”

“I will,” Clarke responded throwing her arms around Raven, “You have a good night too, I want details of everything that happens, so don’t forget to text me.”

“I won’t.”

Clarke said her goodbyes and then left the house, climbing into her car and making her way towards Bellamy’s.

\--

“Hey,” He greeted her with a smile when he opened the door. “Come on in.”

She breezed past him into his house and stopped in the living room. It was dark inside; the only light was from the glow of the candles that were lit all around the room. The coffee table had a plain white sheet laid across It and was adorned with two wine glasses and bottle of wine.

“What’s all this?” Clarke asked, touched by gesture when he came to a stop behind her.

“The ‘I’m sorry I’ve been such a jerk’ dinner.”

She looked up at him, eyes wide. “You’re making me dinner to say sorry?”

“Yeah,” He nodded and moved so he was standing in front of her. “I’m sorry for how I acted at Octavia’s the other day, I was a real ass and I had no right to speak to you like that.”

“Its fine,” Clarke said having already forgiven him.

“No its not, I’ve been stressed out because of work lately but it’s no excuse for the way I acted. So I’m sorry,” His eyes were pleading with hers. “Will you forgive me?”

“Of course I forgive you Bellamy.”

He smiled at her and leant down, cupping her face in his hands and gently laid a soft kiss on her lips. “Good, because I don’t think I could take you being mad at me. We all know what you like to do with drinks when you’re mad.”

She pushed him away from her with a scowl. “Way to ruin a sweet moment, Bellamy.”

“I’m joking.”

“I know.”

“You look beautiful by the way,”

A blush made its way on to her cheeks. “Thanks, you don’t look to bad yourself.”

He laughed and guided her towards the couch, they both sat down on it comfortably.

“So what’s been happening?”

“Not much. I’m driving myself crazy trying to come up with ideas for my final assignment.”

“Try not to think too much about it.”

“How can I not think about it? I need a good grade to pass.”

He seemed to think about it for a second, an idea forming in his head.

“Draw something you know.”

“What do you mean?” She scrunched her eyebrows in confusion and peered at him.

“Like the sunrise we seen, draw it.”

“I can’t just draw a sunrise, it’s too literal.”

“That’s not what I meant,” He ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, arts not really my thing, I’m trying to find the words to explain.”

She waited for a moments whilst he collected his thoughts, then he continued. “I don’t mean just draw the sunrise. I mean draw the sunrise how you would see it in your mind.”

“You’re losing me,” She said genuinely baffled.

“Like when I picture sunrise in my mind, I think of the colours it has, or the fact that when the sun is rising it means it’s going to be day time soon and it’s time to wake up.”

She was trying to see where he was going with this, but she was failing.

“What do you think about when you picture the sunrise?”

“I don’t know.”

“You do know, come on Clarke, think about it.”

“I think of my dad...” She thought, feeling a pang of despair at the memory.

“Go on,”

“I think of love... laughter and memories.”

“Right, see how the way I thought of the sunrise as something totally different?”

She nodded.

“Everyone’s opinions or points are going to be different to someone else’s, because everybody views things in different ways. Instead of being so literal about sunrise, why don’t you just paint what it is you see when you think about it? You could paint it as a memory or paint it as your dad. It leaves the painting open to interpretation because of how everyone may see it differently to how you see it.”

She lost herself in her thoughts.

“I’m sorry if that doesn’t make much sense,” He continued.

“No, I get what you’re trying to say.”

And in a weird way, she did. She could paint her truth. Paint how she seen the world, and how different it may be to other people.

Her hand began to twitch at her side and Bellamy noticed.

“Seriously? We’re in the middle of a date.” He laughed.

“I can’t help it!” She laughed too, “When I get an idea in my head, I feel the overwhelming need to draw it.”

He stood up from the couch and moved into the kitchen, returning with a piece of paper and a pencil. “I mean it’s no art kit, but it might help.”

She smiled and took it from him, the overwhelming need to draw taking over.

“I’ll just go finish dinner.” He said but she didn’t hear him, she was already in her own world.

It was the first time Bellamy had seen her draw, and he was absolutely enthralled by her.

It was like she forgot about the whole world around her and it all seemed to fade away. The way she looked right now turned Bellamy on slightly, so as much as he was enjoying watching her draw, he scarpered back into the kitchen to keep an eye on the food.

-

After dinner was over Clarke lay down on the couch, resting her head on Bellamy’s legs and he absentmindedly ran his fingers through her hair.

“Can I see it?” He asked feeling the softness of her hair between his fingers.

“See what?” She moved her head backwards to gaze at him.

“The drawing.”

“Oh,” She said a small blush appearing on her face, “It’s just a sketch right now, I’ll have to redraw it when I get home and add some more detail. You can see it when it’s finished.”

He smiled down at her.

_When did I get so lucky?_

The thought hit her hard and she instantly sat up, but a sharp pain in her head made her wince and pulled her back down.

“Ow!” She moaned and Bellamy laughed.

“Hold on.” Bellamy’s hands had still been running through her hair and when she sat up quickly, his hands had gotten tangled in her hair and it had pulled at her scalp painfully.

He quickly untangled his hands and rubbed her head.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” She muttered and sat back up again, this time succeeding.

“Where’s the fire?” He humoured and gestured to her earlier rush of sitting up.

“I thought I left the curlers on at home,” She stated lamely, “But then I remembered I turned them off.”

“You’re so cute.”

She scowled and remembered her earlier thought.

_When did I get so lucky? Where the hell did that come from?_

She hadn’t realised at first but now that she thought about how her and Bellamy’s relationship was progressing, she realised just how comfortable she had gotten being with him. Her walls had fully come down and she was beginning to let herself trust him, something that used to be such a struggle for her when it came to other men.

“Bellamy?” She asked.

He was already staring at her so instead of using his words, he lifted his eyebrow.

“Why did you want to date me?”

She felt him stiffen beside her.

_Fuck, is this the part in the relationship where the girl gets too overemotional and scares the guy away?_

“What do you mean?” His voice was strained.

“Like when I said no to you that very first day we seen each other, why did you come into my college and demand I ring you? Or on our first date when I was such a bitch to you, why did you still want to date me?”

He visibly relaxed once she asked this and he chuckled at the memory.

“I’ve always thought you were a puzzle Clarke,” He thought, “Something that I can never seem to figure out. You’re still like that now; I never seem to know what you’re thinking or what you’re going to do next. It keeps this relationship exciting.”

“So you did all that because you thought I was a puzzle?” She scrunched her face, trying and failing to understand what he was saying.

“No,” He moved a piece of fallen hair behind her ear. “Not the whole reason, but it was a part of it. To be honest Clarke, I don’t think you’d like the reason for me wanting to date you. It’s not the least bit romantic and its definitely not something to tell the grandkids about.”

Clarke blushed at the mention of the grandkids.

“I don’t care about romantic, you know that. Tell me.”

He was silent for a few seconds and she wasn’t sure if the lighting was playing tricks on her but she was sure she could see Bellamy’s face reddening a little. Something she had never seen before. Bellamy didn’t blush easily.

“Oh my god, you’re blushing!” She cackled at him.

“No I’m not.” He replied stubbornly, the blush deepening.

“Yes you are!”

She was still laughing and Bellamy feeling embarrassed dived at her, making her back hit the bottom of the couch. His hands attacked her sides, tickling every funny spot he could find and Clarke’s laughter boomed around the living room.

“Bellamy! Stop!” She pushed out between breathes.

“Are you going to stop picking on me?”

She nodded her eyes lighting up.

“Promise?”

She nodded again.

“I can’t hear you!” He went in again, tickling her and she squealed and squirmed in his grip.

“I promise!” She bellowed out. “I promise Bellamy!”

He let go of her and sat back looking at her amused.

She wiped tears of laughter from her cheeks and stayed in the same position, letting herself calm down and trying to get her breath back.

“It’s because you said no.” Bellamy said quietly into the silence.

“Huh?” She asked and cocked her head to the side so she could see him.

“That very first day when we met when I asked for your number, you said no.” He recalled. “I wanted to date you because you said no.”

A giggle escaped her, “Seriously?”

He nodded, “Seriously. I’ve never had a girl say no to me, it was quite refreshing if I’m honest. But then you kept on saying no to me and I thought who is this girl?! It made me more determined to go out with you. Then you finally text me and I tried so hard to impress you on that first date, but you took me to Azgeda of all places.”

He grimaced at the thought and she laughed at the memory.

“Then you called me out on my shit.” He continued.

“If I remember rightly, you called me out on mine too.” She butted in.

“Yeah,” He laughed. “You were a pain in the ass that night.”

“Hey,” She giggled and nudged his knee with her leg.

“You’re still a pain in the ass, but I like that. I like that you don’t do everything to try and catch my attention or please me. You say what’s on your mind and you don’t take my bullshit. I’m glad I didn’t take no for an answer of off you, because if I did I wouldn’t be here right now, enjoying this moment with you.”

“I’m glad you didn’t take no for answer too.”

And she meant it.

Her life had changed a lot since she met Bellamy, and she was glad of it. She herself had also changed a lot since she met Bellamy, she found herself laughing more and she was becoming more open about her feelings.

Bellamy stared over at her, adoration in his eyes. He moved from where he was sat and went in between her legs so he was hanging above her. She didn’t say anything, didn’t want too in case it broke the moment. He slowly bent his head to hers and her eyelids closed instantly. She felt his lips brush hers gently and she parted her lips to give him entry. Their tongues danced together and she felt like there were currents of electricity humming around her body. Desire coursed through her and Bellamy’s body lowered grinding on her lower regions. She moaned into the kiss and tugged gently at the hairs on the nape of his neck.

Who knows what would have happened that night.

With the way Clarke was feeling she probably would have taken it further. But she didn’t get the chance to see because they were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. Bellamy removed his lips from hers and groaned in desperation, his body flopping down on top of hers.

“Hey lovebirds,” Came the familiar drawl of Murphy. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Fucking Murphy,” She heard Bellamy grumble into her ear and she stifled a giggle.

She pushed at Bellamy’s shoulders, “Struggling to breath here.”

Her instantly got up from her and gave her an apologetic smile.

“Ooh I’m starved,” Murphy stated seeing the now empty plates on the coffee table. “Is there any more food?”

“I thought you were staying at Emori’s?” Bellamy asked ignoring him.

“I was, but then I decided to come home.” He shrugged.

“Did you guys have a fight?”

“No.”

Bellamy turned to Clarke, “They had a fight.”

“I swear we didn’t. I just couldn’t handle the way I was feeling, so I came home.”

“What do you mean?”

“I started having these strange feelings.” He spat out the word feelings like it was a dirty word, “So I came home.”

“What kind of feelings?” Clarke interjected, joining in on the conversation.

He looked like he was having some kind of internal struggle with himself.

“Right If I tell you, this doesn’t leave this room. If it does then I’ll cut your hands off and make you eat them.”

“Well that was graphic,” Bellamy grimaced and Clarke laughed.

“I’m being serious guys!” He yelled. “You’re going to have to Murphy promise me.”

“Murphy promise?” Clarke asked confused.

“You don’t want to know.” He grimaced and then turned to Murphy. “How about we just do a normal pinky promise?”

“Fine,” He said after a beat and each of them took turns to shake their pinkies.

“Okay,” He said and sat back on the couch. “So these feelings started about a month back when I got into a fight with her. She refused to call me John and instead called me Murphy. She’s the only person I let do that, so don’t any of you get any ideas.”

He wagged his finger in a no motion at them.

“Anyway,” He continued. “She didn’t call it me for three whole days, and I found myself beginning to… miss it.”

“Go on,” Bellamy urged.

“Then at random moments, I’d catch myself just staring at her. Like she could be doing something random like washing up and I’m just sat there staring at her like some sort of freak. And these thoughts would invade my head from nowhere like ‘she’s so beautiful’ or ‘I love the way she smiles’” His voice went a few octaves higher as he said this.

“Then last week she told me she was planning on going on a night out with a few friends from work, so I asked if there would be guys going and she said there would be and I felt..”

He trailed off struggling with his words. He ran a frustrated hand through his head and spat out. “I felt jealous.”

I raised my eyebrows at Bellamy and he smiled knowingly back at me.

“Then I said I wasn’t comfortable with her being around guys, but she said she was single so I had no right to be. But the thought of any other guy going near her makes me want to get sent down on a murder charge.”

“Don’t be an idiot Murphy,” Clarke stated boldly to him and Murphy looked at her surprised by her words. “You’re totally in love with her.”

Murphy sighed, “I figured as much when I was walking home from her house. I just needed someone else to confirm it for me.”

“I don’t get what the problem is,” Clarke said. “Isn’t being in love with her a good thing?”

  “It is in the sense of I know I want to be with her,” He replied. “But it isn’t in the sense of I have no idea how to tell her.”

“Just come right out and say it.” She laughed.

“I can’t.” He huffed. “I want to make it… special. In fact the only thing I can think of is how I don’t want her going out on this night out single. I want to make it official.”

It took a second for the words to register in her brain and when they did she squealed and jumped on Murphy hugging him.

Bellamy watched on in amusement, unusually quiet through out this whole interaction. He couldn’t believe that this was the same boy who when drunk last year, ate a worm because Bellamy told him too. He had definitely matured. And as much as Bellamy was happy for him, there was also a sinking feeling in his stomach, because this meant that Murphy would be officially off the market and he would no longer have his wingman by his side.

“This is so great!” Clarke said excitedly, “How are you going to ask her?”

“I was hoping that would be something you could help me with,” He said sheepishly scratching his head.  Clarke smiled and nodded her head eagerly agreeing.

 They stayed like that for a while, forming plans on how Murphy would ask Emori to be his girlfriend. Bellamy offered his advice where it was needed but he mainly remained silent. Instead choosing to watch his best friend and current girl he was seeing interact.

They had gotten considerably closer these past few weeks and had struck up a sort of unspoken friendship with each other. Murphy tended to seek Clarke out when he needed advice on Emori and Clarke always gave it to him. It was nice for Bellamy to see his friends clicking with her.

He tuned back into the conversation.

“You can count on me to get her there.” Clarke yawned.

“Okay well I’ll text you the details when I decide on which way I want to go about it.”

Clarke smiled at him and yawned again.

“You tired princess?” Bellamy butted himself into the conversation.

She nodded sleepily at him.

“Do you want to crash here for the night?”

She nodded again, “Yeah, but I've got to leave here about half ten in the morning because I’ve got college.”

“Okay. Well you can take the bed; I’ll come up in a minute.”

She smiled at him again and turned to Murphy. “Night.”

“Night Clarke.” He said back and saluted her; she let out a giggle before getting up off the couch and heading upstairs. Bellamy picked up the plates from the table and took them into the kitchen; he heard Murphy follow him and watched as he placed the empty wine glasses down on the side.

He washed up the plates and glasses in silence.

“You okay bro?” Murphy asked. “You were pretty quiet in there.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Just because I want to go official with Emori doesn’t mean you’re going to lose me as friend.”

He hit the nail on the head.

Bellamy was scared now that because he wanted her as his girlfriend that they would never see each other any more, and he would move out.

“So you’re not going to be moving out anytime soon?”

“What! No way!” He spluttered. “Jeesh I’m only asking her to be my girlfriend. Moving in with her is definitely something my brain can’t handle thinking about right now.”

Bellamy laughed. “I know I’m being stupid. Emori’s a great girl and I’m happy it’s her you want to be your girlfriend.”

“She is pretty amazing,” Murphy thought and smiled. “But I promise you, nothing is going to change. It will still be how it is now, except now I have the boyfriend title.”

“I know. Your right.” He turned and quickly pulled Murphy into a hug, who returned the embrace. “I’m happy for you.”

They pulled away from each other and Murphy looked at Bellamy curiously.

“What about you?” He asked, “Are you going to ask Clarke to be your girlfriend?”

“If I have to then yeah.”

“You mean if you have to for the bet?”

“Yeah of course, why else would I ask her to be my girlfriend?”

“Because you like her.”

Bellamy looked at him surprised.

“Yeah it’s pretty obvious you’re starting to get feelings for her.” Murphy continued.

_I didn’t think it was that obvious._

“It doesn’t matter if I like her, I’m going through with this bet and my feelings won’t change my mind.” He shrugged off Murphy’s observation. “I’m going to get a sheet from upstairs and I’m going to bed. Goodnight Murphy.”

He moved away from the sink and walked out of the kitchen, as he got to opening of the living room he heard Murphy say. “It’s not too late to change your mind.”

He ignored him and carried on walking, blowing out the candles in the living room and making his way upstairs.

When he opened the door to his room the door creak and he saw Clarke stir, she threw him a sleepy smile.

“Sorry, I ended up speaking to Murphy; I just need to get a sheet.”

“Stay.” She said simply and Bellamy looked to her.

“What in the bed? With you?”

She nodded.

He didn’t need to be told twice; he shrugged off his jeans and put some pyjama bottoms on. Something he didn’t usual wear, but he didn’t want to push it. Then he climbed into the vacant spot on the bed and pulled himself under the covers. He lay on his back stiffly unsure of what to do; luckily he didn’t have to think too much about it because Clarke turned over and shuffled over to him. She laid her head in the crook of his neck and rested her arm on his chest. Bellamy instantly put his arm around her shoulders cuddling her more into him.

“Bellamy?” She asked her voice thick with tiredness.

“Yeah?”

“What’s a murphy promise?”

He chuckled and her head bobbed up and down from the movements.

“Its nothing too bad, just a normal promise but if you break it you have to do a forfeit. Let’s just say the last guy that broke Murphy’s promise ended up with a condom full of water being thrown on his head.”

He heard her giggle.

“Goodnight Bellamy,” She whispered.

“Good night Clarke.”

He listened for a while as her breathing got heavier and he couldn’t help but think how perfectly her head fit in the crook of his neck,.

“Clarke?” He whispered after a while, but it was clear to him she was fast asleep.

“I’m sorry,” He whispered and it seemed to echo around the room with no one there to listen.

-

Clarke had stayed at Bellamy’s house a few times now, the first being the night of the party. From all of the times that she had stayed, Bellamy had been the perfect gentlemen, giving up his bed for her and him sleeping on the couch. That changed last night when he instead got in the bed with her and for Clarke that was a big step for her to take into moving forward with their relationship.

In fact it was a big step in general for Clarke to take.

She hadn’t shared a bed with a man in years and the whole process of it last night was strange for her. She wasn’t used to feeling somebody next to her, but it was feeling she liked. She liked it when their arms accidently brushed up against each other and she liked the warmth she got from his body when she awoke in the middle of the night, his arm lazily wrapped around her. They hadn’t done and Clarke was okay with that, only it was getting progressively harder for her to stop herself and Bellamy from moving to the next step when he kissed her.

She knew she wanted to move towards the next step, she just didn’t think she was emotionally ready too. If she did then it finally made this relationship real for her, it made her feelings for Bellamy real. It meant she was finally moving on and Clarke didn’t know if she was ready to let go of her past and let herself be happy.

She rolled onto her back and stretched lazily, the other side of the bed now empty. She’d heard Bellamy rustling about this morning but her eyes were still groggy and she let sleep succumb to her again. She reached over and checked her phone, it was 8am, and Bellamy was probably downstairs.

She sat up and let herself focus on her surroundings trying to fully wake up. She didn’t have a lecture until eleven, but she knew she couldn’t go back to sleep so she decided she would get up and go join Bellamy downstairs. She got out of the bed and went towards his bathroom, turning the shower on to wake herself up more. Once it was to the desired heat she wanted, she stripped off and climbed in letting the spray of water hit off her back.

-

Once out of the shower, she moved to Bellamy’s wardrobe and threw on one his t-shirts, then she put on some underwear, socks and some leggings. She ruffled the towel on her head so her hair wasn’t dripping down her back and then left his room silently.

She came to the bottom of the stairs and saw Echo at the other end of the hallway against the wall. She scrunched her eyebrows up in confusion.

_What is she doing?_

She walked a bit closer and Echo, feeling a presence behind her turned to stare at Clarke, her eyes going wide at the sight of her. Then a smug smile played on her lips and she moved down the hallway meeting Clarke halfway.

“What are you-?”

“Ssh!” Echo whispered cutting off Clarke’s voice and pushing her finger to her lips.

“What –“

“Clarke, be quite for a second.” She whispered quickly at her, annoyed.

“Why?” Clarke whispered back, seriously confused by this girls actions. “What’s going on?”

“You need to hear this,” Echo whispered again and motioned for Clarke to follow her, reminding her to be quite again. Echo moved back towards the end of the hallway and Clarke followed, but instead of going into the living room that lead off it, Echo stopped her with her hand and pushed her back against the wall, pointing to her ears and then the living room.

Listen.

Clarke huffed, annoyed by Echo’s rudeness, but she did as she was told and focused on listening for sounds. The first thing she noticed was that there were voices, three of them. The shower had woken her up, but she wasn’t a morning person and she couldn’t focus without her morning coffee, so it took her a lot longer than it usually would to place the owners of the voices but eventually she got there. The voices she could hear where Bellamy, Murphy and Wells.

This didn’t strike her as odd as they were all really good friends and hung out a lot. She threw an annoyed look at Echo who was staring at her intently.

“So it’s been a month Bellamy, have you secured the package yet?” She heard Murphy say humorously.

She didn’t know what happened in between that but she heard the sounds of skin on skin connecting.

“Seriously?” She heard Murphy grumble afterwards and she figured one of them had just hit him.

“Package Murphy? Really? You couldn’t have come up with a better name for it?”

“It sounded cooler in my head,” Murphy mumbled and she heard Bellamy and Wells laugh.

She didn’t want to listen to this, it was just boys being boys and she didn’t understand why Echo was eavesdropping in the first place. She was about to tell her this when she heard her name.

“So have you done it with Clarke yet?” Wells questioned.

Clarke furrowed her eyebrows.

_It? What does he mean by ‘done it?’_

She listened more intently.

“No,” Bellamy scoffed, “She’s being a bit of a prude because she wants to take it slow.”

Clarke froze a sinking feeling in her stomach. She didn’t like the way Bellamy was talking about her.

_Are they talking about my sex life?_

“I don’t know man; I don’t think you’re going to meet the deadline.” Wells replied teasingly.

“Oh trust me, I’ll get it done. A few more sleepovers in my bed and few more romantic dinners and she’ll be putty in my hands.”

Anger surged through her veins.

_Who the fuck does he think he is, talking about me like that._

Clarke furious now, pulled herself off the wall with the intentions of storming into that living room and giving Bellamy a piece of her mind, but once again Echo stopped her.

“Listen,” She mouthed to her and Clarke begrudgingly did.

“I don’t think you should do this Bellamy.” She heard Murphy say in a small voice and the room went uncharacteristically silent for a few moments.

“What do you mean?” Bellamy finally asked.

“I just don’t think this is right. Its unfair to lead her on like this.”

It went silent again before she heard Wells laugh out loud.

“Aww Murphy’s gone all soft because he’s thinking of going official with Emori!”

She heard Bellamy join in on the laughter but it sounded strained.

“No its not!” Murphy defended himself. “Clarkes a nice girl and what you two are doing is going to hurt her. Does that not bother you?”

“Clarke will be fine,” Wells drawled, “I’ve known her for years, she’ll dust herself off and get back up again.”

“It’s not the point though Wells.” Murphy’s voice had gotten a little louder now, more confident. “She didn’t ask for any of this. But because you are always in completion with each other, now she’s going to get hurt. All because of a stupid bet.”

“Keep you’re voice down Murphy,” Bellamy hissed, “She’s upstairs.”

“It’s not a stupid bet,” Wells huffed, “If he doesn’t sleep with her I get a brand spanking new car. If he wins, not only does he get laid,  but he gets to travel the world. I think it’s a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.”

“So getting a car is more important than loosing your friendship with her?”

“I won’t loose any friendship with her, because she’ll never find out about it.”

The statement hung in the air.

“Right Murphy?” He pushed.

“Right.” Murphy mumbled but didn’t add any more.

“Ignore him,” Wells addressed Bellamy, “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But back to the topic at hand, you’ve got two months. Times ticking Bellamy, you may want to start pushing forward.”

“Don’t worry,” Bellamy said quietly, “I know what I’m doing.”

Clarke stood frozen to the spot, letting the words of their conversation sink in. Her hands were trembling and her breaths were coming out panicked. She felt someone’s hands warp around her arm and pull her away from the wall, but she didn’t register who it was and where they going, she was too wrapped up in her own head to figure it out.

_A bet._

_2 months._

_‘Putty in my hands’_

The words circled around her brain over and over again and she couldn’t form a single responsive thought. She felt numb.

“Clarke!” The voice broke through and she looked see Echo staring down at her with concern. She’d brought her back outside of Bellamy’s room. She didn’t even remember walking up the stairs.

“Hey” She said again bringing her eyes back to her, “Are you okay?”

Clarke nodded slowly, words failing her.

A quick flash of understanding flew by on Echo’s face but as quick as it disappeared so did the look of concern, a smug smile replacing it instead.

“I told you so,” She sneered at her. “I told you once he was done with you he would cast you aside. This is what happens when you don’t listen to me.”

She gave Clarke a once over and with one last smug smile she turned away from her, heading into her room leaving Clarke alone in the hallway.

Once the door to her room closed, Clarke felt the treacherous tears start to fall fast. They singed her skin with the feelings of hurt and betrayal as they fell.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bellamy, what are you doing? 
> 
> I was meant to add this like 4 days ago but my laptop decided to have a meltdown and I've had to rewrite this whole chapter. So I'm sorry for the delay but I hope the wait was worth it. Thank you for the comments and kudos and bookmarks, i love reading everyone's comments it all means a lot. Hope you enjoy this chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

She didn’t know how long she stood there, it might have been seconds, it might have been minutes. She didn’t know much of anything; she just stood there, numbly staring at the end of the hallway with tears streaming down her face. It was as if time had come to a complete stop and she couldn’t think a single thought or say a single word.

A laugh from downstairs brought her back to the present and everything seemed to rush at her at once. Every thought, every feeling and every lie he had ever spoken to her.

She sucked in a deep breath as the emotional pain of what she could only describe as heartache, hit her full force, making her stumble back in surprise. Her tears continued to leak from her eyes like a never ending waterfall and she suddenly realised that she was still standing in the hallway.

_Bellamy could walk upstairs any minute,_ she thought. _I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me like this._

She quickly scurried back inside Bellamy’s room and ran straight for the bathroom locking the door behind her. She slammed her back against the door and a fresh wave of pain hit her, making her choke back a sob. She slid down the door her butt hitting the tiled floor, suddenly exhausted. She couldn’t hold it back anymore, she felt _betrayed._ Her body began to tremble all over and she couldn’t stop the chest heaving sobs that came after. A cry left her throat without her permission, the sound echoing off the bathroom walls. She shoved her hand against her mouth in an effort to quieten her anguish. It didn’t work, she was hysterical.

_How could he do this to me?_ She thought. _Why would he do this to me?_

She hadn’t heard the whole conversation between the boys; she had only heard what Echo had wanted her to hear. From what she had heard though, she was sure that Bellamy was using her. He didn’t want to be with her, he never had.

She thought back to their date last night where Bellamy had listed multiple reasons on why he had wanted to be with her. The words he said ringing around her head, haunting her.

_He didn’t mean a single word he said._

_He was lying._

_He was in a bet with Wells and the conditions were that he had to sleep with me._

She sobbed again and thought back to the past month they had spent together. All the personal conversations she had had with him, all the laughter and joy they had shared together.

_None of it was real._

Her nose was running and she quickly wiped it on the back on her sleeve, her breathing heavy and fast. She hadn’t felt pain like this for a very long time; pain like her heart was breaking.

She furiously wiped away the falling tears from her cheeks and kicked herself for being so weak.

_Stop being so pathetic Clarke;_ she tried to give herself a pep talk. _Pull yourself together, you never cry over a boy._

It didn’t work that much but it did make her feel slightly better.

Only slightly.

She managed to find some energy to pull her deflated body from the floor and she moved over to the bathroom sink. She looked at herself through mirror and the girl staring back wasn’t the same girl who had looked in it this morning. Her eyes were red and puffy and few stray tears still fell from her eyes, she wiped them away quickly. Her skin was red and blotchy from the constant wiping away of tears, the material of her sleeve scratching at her delicate skin.

She looked... _broken._

She ran the cold tap and cupped her hands underneath it and then she threw the water over her face, the coldness of it shocking her. She did this a few more times then reached for a towel to pat her face dry, turning the tap off after. It didn’t do much, but it cleaned away most of the snot and tear streaks, and her face didn’t look so red anymore. But the effects were still visible from her emotional breakdown.

She sat down on the toilet seat and stared at the wall feeling empty.

_Maybe it’s not what you think it is,_ the doubt started to set in. _Maybe you heard it wrong and he’s got a perfect explanation for saying what he did._

Mentally she reached for the thought and she grabbed hold of it with two hands, willing for that to be the reason. But she couldn’t fool herself into thinking it was, not this time. She knew what she heard and she knew what they were talking about. Her main concern at this point was wanting answers from him. She wanted to know why.

Why had Wells, one of her closest friends, betrayed her like this? Why had he gone along and made a bet involving her, knowing that it would hurt her?

Murphy she could understand knowing, he was Bellamy’s friend and owed no loyalties to her. But did it not bother him when he was coming to her for advice about Emori and laughing and joking with her, when he knew all along what was happening? Did he not like her enough to care? Was he pretending to be her friend?

And Bellamy, _God Bellamy._

How could he sit there with her and laugh with her, knowing what he was inevitably going to do to her? How could he kiss her and pretend to like her? Pretend like she meant something to him?

_Did Octavia know? Fuck how many other people are in on this?_

She tried to shake the paranoia but she couldn’t help but think it.

She should have expected this from Bellamy, what with his past. He had treated woman like dirt in the past and she shouldn’t have thought that she would be any different. She shouldn’t have thought that she could change him.

_A leopard never changes its spots and all that.._

She had so many questions, but she didn’t know if she wanted them answered. She wasn’t even sure on how to deal with this situation. She just didn’t want to sit here and think about it because the more she thought about it, the less upset she got and the angrier she got in its place.

Sure she was still visibly upset by what she had heard, but her anger seemed to drown it out.

_How dare he do something like this to me!_

She desperately wanted to go downstairs and confront them all but she was scared that if she did, she would loose it. And Clarke loosing it wasn’t a very nice sight.

She moved from the bathroom unlocking the door and walking back in the bedroom.

_I can’t be here right now. I need to think._

She didn’t want to be around any of the guys downstairs right now, she needed her own bed and a shit ton of comfort food. She needed time to collect her thoughts before she made any rash decisions.

She quickly pulled on her shoes and began to hastily throw most of her things she brought over into her bag, as she was throwing the last thing in there she heard a soft knock at the door. She instantly froze, hoping it wasn’t Bellamy.

“Yeah?” She called out her voice shaky.

No reply came and instead the door handle turned and the door slowly opened, Clarke braced herself. It wasn’t Bellamy but it was also someone else she didn’t particularly want to see.

“What do you want Echo?” She grumbled. “Are you here to gloat? I’m not in the mood.”

Echo again didn’t reply, instead choosing to take in Clarke’s dishevelled appearance when her eyes landed on the bag that Clarke was holding.

“You’re leaving?” She asked shocked.

Clarke nodded slowly.

“Oh okay,” She said rather disappointed.

“What do you expect me to do Echo?” Clarke said her voice cracking as she noticed Echo’s disappointed face. “I’ve just found out that for the past month of dating Bellamy, he’s been using me. I’m not exactly going to go downstairs and play happy families with him and pretend everything’s okay am I?”

“I don’t expect you to do anything Clarke,” She replied coolly.

Clarke laughed bitterly, “Look I’m grateful for what you did down there, but I’m not here for your mind games, I’m seriously not in the mood right now. I’m leaving,”

She walked past her and was about to open the door when Echo’s voice stopped her.

“You’re pathetic.”  She spat.

Clarke whirled round and walked up to her, anger evident her face.

_She does not want to mess with me right now. Not with the mood I’m in._

“Don’t start with me Echo,” Clarke told her, her voice low and dangerous.

Echo shrugged clearly unbothered by Clarke’s mood and Clarke felt her anger spike higher.

“I’m just saying that I think you’re pathetic.”

“And why is that? Because you told me that this would happen and I didn’t listen to you? Is that why I’m pathetic?”

“No,” She shook her head. “I think you’re pathetic for going home. I mean what happened to the girl that I met at Murphy’s party last week huh? The one that took no shit from me then proceeded to throw a drink at me?  Where did she go? Because I’m pretty sure if she was here, she would be downstairs kicking Bellamy’s ass right now and not planning on just running away from her problems without saying a word.”

“I’m not running away, Echo.” Clarke whispered quietly. “I’m removing myself from a very toxic situation before it gets any worse.”

Echo snorted and Clarke narrowed her eyes.

_I’ve really had enough of this bitch._

“Well since you have such a high opinion on this subject, tell me. What you would do?” Clarke huffed crossing her arms across her chest. “What would you do in this situation?”

Echo smiled, “I wouldn’t sit here crying about it, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t even let myself get mad about the situation. I’d get even.”

“You’d get even? What does the even mean?”

Echo shrugged again, “It means I’d make him pay for doing that to me. I’m not the type of girl who sits in her room feeling sorry for herself and eating a shit a load of ice cream to make myself feel better.”

Clarke looked away slightly embarrassed knowing she was the type of girl to do that.

“Look I just don’t think you should leave without saying something to him, but then again, it’s none of my business what you do.” Her gaze softened and she gave Clarke a small smile, something that seemed odd for Clarke to see as she had never seen Echo really smile at all before.

She said nothing else and then left the room leaving Clarke with her own thoughts, something that she probably shouldn’t have done. Clarke had her reasons for wanting to leave the house. She was angry and emotional and she hadn’t wanted to make any rash decisions whilst she was in this state.

But she was making a rash decision.

The conversation she had just had with Echo was running around her brain and she couldn’t get rid of it.

_“I wouldn’t sit here crying about it, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t even let myself get mad about the situation. I’d get even.”_

 She didn’t want to go home and eat ice cream in an effort to make herself feel better; she wanted Bellamy to pay for what he was doing to her.

She wanted _all of them_ to pay.

She scurried out of the room and went straight towards Echo’s room at the end of the hall, opening the door and pushing herself in without knocking.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Echo snarled once she caught sight of her. “You have no right to just barge in here without knocking.”

Clarke just stared at her with a wicked grin on her face, her brain ticking overtime.

She looked mad.

And not in the angry sense but more in the sense of ‘she needs to go to a nuthouse’ type of mad.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Echo said nervously when she noticed the look on Clarkes face.

“You were right.” She said nodding back at her, the crazy smile still stuck on her face.

“About what?”

“About getting even.”

Echo stared at her in silence for a few minutes until the words registered in her brain and she understood what she was getting at.

“Wait a minute,” She said holding her hands up. “I said that’s something I would do Clarke, not something you should do.”

“Why not? Why can’t I do it?”

“Because you’re you!” She said exasperated. “You’re sweet little Clarke, you’d instantly feel guilty about what you were doing and you would tell them.”

“I would not!” She replied back defensively.

“Yes you would.”

“Look I’m not here for your permission, I’m doing it and that’s final.” Clarke huffed. “And you’re going to help me.”

Echo barked out a laugh, “Why would I do that? What do I care what Bellamy does to you or what you do to Bellamy?”

“Because you love him,” Clarke whispered.

She didn’t say it maliciously but there was a force behind her words and they hung in the air. It wasn’t a statement, it was a fact. It was obvious that Echo loved him; you could tell by the way she looked at him when she thought no one was looking, but Clarke had seen it.

“So? Doesn’t that fact entitle me to tell him about you’re plans then?”

“No, because that wont make him love you back. If you tell him about my plans, I’ll tell him that it was you who told me about his little bet. He’ll never forgive you for that and you know it.”

Echo opened and closed her mouth like a fish. Clarke had got her right where she wanted her.

“What he’s doing to me is wrong Echo,” Clarke continued her voice cracking. “He’s using me for his own selfish gains and Wells and Murphy are in on it. It isn’t right and I certainly don’t deserve it.”

“I know.” Echo replied quietly.  

“I want them to pay for what they’re doing. I want Bellamy to know what it feels like to be used and I want him to see what he’s been doing to us girls and how the way he treats us affects us. I want to be the girlfriend from hell; I want to see how far I can push him before he snaps. I want to see just how important this bet is to him. And when I’m done, he’s all yours. I don’t want to be with him, not after this. If you help me, I promise to stay out of your way.”

Echo moved to sit on the bed.

“Are you sure about this Clarke? I’m all for being a bitch and ruining peoples lives but is that something you really want to do? Once you start this there’s no going back,”

Clarke hesitated.

_Was this something she could do? Could she really hurt the people she cared about?_ And she did care about them, all of them. Despite what they were doing to her, she couldn’t switch her feelings off.

“Clarke?” She heard his voice before she seen him.

Echo instantly jumped up off the bed, panic clear on her face.

“Clarke?” He called again.

“Fuck what do we do?” Echo said as she began to pace round the room.

“Calm down, its fine.”

Echo whirled on her. “Its not fucking fine Clarke, we hate each other. How am I supposed to explain why you’re in my room to him?”

“Just say I came in because you wanted to apologise.”

Echo stopped pacing, “Fuck no.”

“Echo-“

“No Clarke, I’m not pretending to apologise to you. I don’t like you and I would never in a million years apologise to you. I don’t apologise to anyone!”

“Then what are we going to say?!” Clarke whisper yelled.

Echo didn’t get a chance to reply as a knock came at her door.

“Echo?” Bellamy’s voice penetrated though the door. “You in there?”

“Fuck!” Echo also whispered yelled. She walked over to the door and pulled it slightly open with a shake to her hands.

“Bellamy.” She stated.

“Hey,” Clarke heard him reply and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “I know you probably haven’t and you probably don’t care, but have you seen Clarke?”

She didn’t reply and instead opened the door so Bellamy could see inside.

Clarke had known she would have to face him today, but she hadn’t expected what she might feel like when she did. Once she caught sight of him, she suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe. Like someone had just punched her in the gut and she was trying to get her breath back but failing. He furrowed his eyebrows to see her standing there.

“Clarke?” He questioned oblivious to her inner turmoil. “What are you doing in here?”

She couldn’t form any words.

She tried but all that came out of her mouth was air.

“I asked her to come in here, so I could apologize for the way I acted towards her at the party.” Echo took over, an annoyed look on her face.

Bellamy looked down at her “You apologised?”

Surprise was evident in his voice and that seemed to anger Echo more.

“I _can_ apologise you know, it’s not the end of the world.”

“Okayyy” He trailed off clearly baffled by this whole situation, he turned back to address Clarke. “I only came to check if you were up because you have college today.”

Clarke only nodded, still unable to speak. She was beginning to feel the tears build back up again.

“Hey are you okay?” He said and walked into the room straight past Echo. “Your face looks kind of blotchy.”

He moved to her and lifted his arms up to grasp hers, she hadn’t meant to but she cringed away from his touch. He quickly snapped his hand away from her and a look of hurt danced across his face.

“I think I had an allergic reaction to some cream I used this morning, its nothing to worry about it will go down in a few hours.”  The lie was effortless, she didn’t stutter and she didn’t mumble. Her voice had finally come back and it had come out strong, and although it was a lie, she still felt guilty.

_Was it this easy for him to lie? Did he ever feel guilty when he did it to me?_

She held back the tears that were threatening to unleash themselves.

“Oh okay.” He said concern evident on his features, “The guys are over and I was going to cook breakfast if you want anything?”

She shook her head, “I’m okay thanks, I just need to finish getting my stuff together, so I’ll meet you downstairs in a minute.”

“Okay.” He looked unsure of himself, unsure of her. He couldn’t figure out why she was acting so off with him. He offered her a small smile and she gave a fake one back in return, hoping to convince him she was okay. He fell for it and left the room, she waited until she couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore before she turned back towards Echo.

Echo was staring straight back at her having watched the interaction between her and Bellamy with interest.

“I’m sure,” Clarke spoke up, replying to Echo’s earlier question. “I want to do this.”

This time there was no hesitation in her voice, she didn’t feel sorry for what she was about to do. Just like Bellamy didn’t feel an ounce of guilt for what he was doing.

“Clarke if you do this, you need to get your emotions in check.” Echo walked over to her. “I saw you flinch when he went to touch you, you can’t do that if you want any chance of this succeeding. You need to carry on acting like everything’s fine and you need to still act the same way with him as you were before you found out about this bet. Do you think you can do that?”

Clarke smiled confidently. “I can do it. I’m going to be the best worst girlfriend he’s ever had.”

\--

She didn’t want to stay any longer than she had to at Bellamy’s; she needed to get of there. Even though she had made a rash decision about what she wanted to do, she still wanted to go through with it. But first she needed time to think, to heal.

As soon as she entered back in to Bellamy’s room, she grabbed her phone and called in sick to her College, letting them know that she wouldn’t be in for a few days. She couldn’t really afford to miss any of her lectures, but she knew there would be no way she could focus with everything going on.

Once she had collected her stuff, she made her way downstairs.

She entered the living room where all the boys sat and they all looked up in unison when she walked in.

“Finally decided to grace us with your presence madam?” Murphy piped up with a joke, a huge smile on his face.

Clarke didn’t smile or laugh in return, she just stared at him and his smile fell from his face.

_Some friend._

“Long time no see Griffin.” Wells joined in, unsure of what was currently happening with the stares Clarke and Murphy were throwing each other.

Clarke moved her unwavering stare towards Wells.

“Yeah it’s been a while.” Her voice was hard, cold.

_“You need to carry on acting like everything’s fine.”_

She wasn’t sure she could now she was standing in front of them in person. She was hurt and she felt betrayed by them.

She sighed and ran a shaky hand through her hair.

“I’m sorry guys,” She said but struggled, “I’m just not in the mood right now.”

Bellamy, who had been watching the exchange between her and his friends with intrigue, jumped from his seat and walked over to her. He took one look at her face and grasped her elbow in his palm and led her into the kitchen away from their friends prying eyes.

“Talk to me,” He pressed once they were out of view, his face full of concern.

_Liar._

“Did something happen between you and Echo upstairs? Did she say something to you?” He continued.

Clarke shook her head, “No I just need to go home, I don’t feel too good.”

She couldn’t help but be slightly impressed by how he could project these emotions when she knew fully well that he didn’t give a shit about her feelings.

“Clarke please,” He begged thinking there was more to it. “I’m worried.”

He moved his hand to push a piece of hair behind her ear but she flinched once again from his touch. He pulled his hand back like she had burned him, his face stung by her actions. He looked at her with a questioning gaze.

_I can’t do this, not now. I need to get my shit together._

“Bellamy,” She pleaded, “Honestly, I just don’t feel too good right now, I just want to go home and get in bed. Hopefully I’ll feel better later.”

He nodded in understanding though it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Okay,” He replied. “I can drive you before I go to work.”

She shook her head quickly. “No, I don’t want you see me like this. I came in my own car, I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” He said again, not sure whether to believe her. “If you need to go, go. But just so you know, I’m always here for you. If you ever need to talk or cry, I’m here.”

The tears she had been holding back earlier came spilling out.

_How can he say those things and not mean them? How can he pretend to care about me?_

His eyes widened once he saw the tears, he hesitantly moved his hands to her face and when she didn’t pull away, he wiped her tears away and then pulled her into a hug. She slowly embraced him back, inwardly cringing at the contact; she didn’t want him to know anything was wrong.

She pulled back rather quickly, “I need to go.”

“Promise you’ll call me when you feel better?”

“Yeah I promise.”

“Okay.” He pulled her back in and kissed her forehead. She felt herself melting at the touch but instantly scolded herself for it. She desperately wished she could go back to their date last night, when she didn’t know anything was wrong and they were happy.

_He wasn’t happy, he was pretending._

She gave him a shaky smile and then she left, she didn’t bother to look at Murphy or Wells as she walked past them out of the door, she couldn’t face them.

\--

Murphy sat and watched as Clarke rushed out the door, tears streaming down her face. His stomach flipped and he had a bad feeling about why she was upset. She hadn’t laughed at him when he cracked his joke to her, she always laughed at his jokes.  

Bellamy returned to the living room, stricken.

“Is she okay?” Wells asked his voice full of concern for his friend.

_His friend, yeah right,_ he thought to himself. _Clarke can’t be that much of a friend if he’s willing to let Bellamy break her heart._

_You’re no better Murphy._

The malicious thought came and he tried to push it down, but he couldn’t. It was right, he wasn’t any better than the two of them. Although he wasn’t actively participating in the bet, he knew about it and he let it continue. That made him just as guilty as the rest of them.

Bellamy shook his head, “I don’t know. She said she wasn’t feeling well, but I think it’s more than that.”

“Maybe she’s just coming down with something?” Wells suggested.

“I don’t man, I’ve never seen her like that.”

“Well she’s going to look much worse than that in two months, so you better get used to seeing her like that.” Murphy interjected quite nastily, projecting his own anger onto the both of them.

“Back to this again Murphy?” Wells whirled on him, “Just fucking drop it, it’s not even got anything to do with you.”

“Fuck you Wells!” Murphy growled and stood up to face him. “It became my business when you told me about it.”

“You’re preaching to us that what were doing is wrong. But what about when you practically used Emori for sex for two years straight? And whilst you did that you had other girls in your bed every night. Do you not think that was wrong? Do you not think that you hurt her by doing that!?”

Wells didn’t see the punch coming, neither did Bellamy.

Murphy’s fist automatically connected with the side of Well’s face at the mention of Emori. His head swung to the side from the sheer force of it and he stumbled backwards losing his balance.

“Don’t ever fucking speak about her again!” Murphy roared.

 Once the initial shock had worn off, Wells now furious lunged at Murphy but Bellamy quickly moved himself into the middle of them trying to hold them off of each other.

“Guys,” He tried but they were still trying to get to each other, limbs flying everywhere as the both tried to reach over Bellamy.

 “GUYS!”

He bellowed loudly to them and pushed Wells harshly as he jumped at Murphy again. “Stop fucking around. Do you even know what you’re doing? You guys are turning on each other and you’re supposed to be friends!”

Wells stood in the spot Bellamy had pushed him into, sweat visible on his forehead and his chest rising quickly.

“You know what Wells, your right.” Murphy growled to Wells over Bellamy’s shoulder. “What I did to Emori was a pretty shitty thing to do, but I never lied to her about what I was doing. Not once. I never pretended like I was exclusively dating her and I never pretended that she was the only girl I was seeing. She knew all about it and it was mutual agreement. So no, it’s not as bad as what you’re doing to Clarke. You’re both actively deceiving her and playing her without her knowledge. You’re both doing this, knowing the pain and misery you’re going to cause her and you don’t care because you’re both gaining something out of this arrangement. That my friend is fucked up.”

“Come on Murphy,” Bellamy tried to calm the situation down. “Don’t you think you’re over reacting just a little bit?”

Murphy snorted behind him and Bellamy turned so he was looking at him.

“You know, what Wells is doing is wrong, but what you’re doing to Clarke is even worse.” His voice had gone quite now, he was feeling utterly drained by it all.

“Murph-“Bellamy started but Murphy cut it him of.

“No,” He shook his head in disappointment at him, “I always knew you were a player with the ladies, but I never thought you would go this low. To let a girl fall for you when you have no intentions of reciprocating those feelings is wrong Bellamy. I thought you were better than that.”

Bellamy’s face fell as he talked and hurt flashed through his eyes.

“We all know Clarke, maybe not as well as Wells, but we’ve all gotten to know her and the kind of person she is. A good person. She doesn’t deserve this, she doesn’t deserve you.”

“So what are you trying to tell us Murphy? Are you going to tell on us and tell Clarke everything?” Well’s asked.

“No,” He shook his head, “I thought about it, and I should. But I wont, I still a have a loyalty to you guys and it’s not my place to tell her, either you or Bellamy should.”

“Well that nots going to happen,” Wells grimaced.

“I figured you’d say that,” He guessed, “And I can’t have no part in this, not anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Bellamy ask quietly his voice wavering.

“It means I’m moving out.”

“What? You can’t move out Murphy!” Bellamy was desperate now, his voice pleading.

“I can’t live here and watch you string that poor girl along; I can’t watch you break her heart. I refuse to be around either of you whilst you do this, my decisions final, I’m leaving. But just so you know, when you do eventually fuck her over and leave, I’m going to be there for her and so is Emori. We’ll take care of her and pick up the pieces you broke whilst you’re off on a plane to some exotic destination.”

“Murphy please,” Bellamy begged. “This is just a stupid fight between friends.”

“No it’s not like fighting about who gets the better girls or who’s fixing the kitchen sink. This is so much different,” Murphy sighed.

“I didn’t mean for any of this happen.” He had to strain to hear Bellamy say this as his voice was so quiet.

“I’m not just blaming you Bellamy,” Murphy said. “Well’s knew exactly who she was when he picked her out. I’m just disappointed that you’re still carrying on with this whole charade.”

“Don’t guilt trip him Murphy,” Wells piped up. “If you want no part in this, then fine. But don’t convince him not to do it, when he’s perfectly capable of making that choice himself.”

“You don’t get it do you?” Murphy laughed. “He’s doing this because he feels like he needs to prove something to you. You do it because you feel like you need to prove something to him, but you’re not really proving anything at all. All’s Bellamy is doing by doing this, is hurting himself and her in the process.”

“How is he hurting himself?”

“You seriously don’t see it?” Murphy asked in disbelief.

_It’s so obvious!_

“See what Murphy?” Wells rolled his eyes.

“That he’s falling in love with her!”

The room went silent and he saw Bellamy stiffen, despair flashing through his eyes.

Well’s eyes turned to stare at Bellamy with scrutiny. “Is that true Bellamy?”

Bellamy looked up to Murphy, his face sad. Murphy pleaded with him with his eyes, wanting him to just admit the truth. If he did, then maybe they could all work something out and Murphy wouldn’t have to leave.

It only took a moment for Bellamy to make up his mind, his facial features turning hard and any emotion that Murphy had seen in his eyes disappeared.

“No.”

Disappointment filled Murphy’s body and with a shake of his head he said. “I’ll be out of here by the end of the week.”

Murphy turned away from his former best friends, his heart slightly breaking and walked away from them, leaving them to stare dumfounded at his retreating back.

\--

Clarke didn’t know where to go.

She didn’t want to go home because she wasn’t sure if she could face Raven after this mornings events. She wasn’t sure she would be up for the questions she would obviously ask her.

It wasn’t like she got very far anyway.

She had rushed out of Bellamy’s in tears and climbed in her car driving away from his house. But she couldn’t seem to stop crying and her breaths were coming out so fast that she started to hyperventilate. Halfway home, she had to pull over on the side of the road to not only be sick from the amount of crying she had done, but in case she got herself into an accident because she couldn’t see the road from her tears.

She rested her head against the steering wheel, the tears freely falling now and her breathing much calmer than it had been before. She didn’t know how long she sat there parked up on the side of road.

She didn’t care.

The only things she cared about were the words she kept chanting over and over again in her head. Words that were helping to calm her, words that were giving her hope, something she could hold onto.

_Don’t get mad or upset. Get even._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I was going to let Clarke just walk away without having some sort of plan? ;) 
> 
> Since my computer had a melt down, its now being fixed and I'm having to use my friends laptop to update this, hence the long wait. After next week, there should be a schedule of updates every 3-4 days. Anyhooow..  
> Thankyou so much for all the love on this story. I absolutely loved reading all of your comments from the last chapter!


	11. Chapter 11

There was a slight knock to the door and Murphy turned his head to see Wells stood in the open doorway to his bedroom.

“Bellamy’s not here,” He said and narrowed his eyes at him. “He’s gone to see Clarke.”

“She finally called him back?” Wells asked.

“No, that’s why he’s gone to see her.  He was beginning to get worried that he hadn’t heard from her in three days. ” He said and turned back to fold clothes.

“I spoke to Raven, Clarke's friend, at College this morning, she said she’s genuinely sick.”

“Well I suppose that’s bad news you for then.” Murphy said as he moved the clothes he had just folded into an empty box and piled them in on top of each other. “That means that Bellamy’s still in with a chance of winning this bet,” He continued and spat out the word bet like it was a dirty word.

“You don’t have to do that you know? Pack up your stuff and move out,” Wells replied ignoring the obvious dig Murphy had just thrown his way.

“Yeah, I do. I told you I don’t want to be around either of you whilst you do this.”

“Did you know Bellamy’s first girlfriend cheated on him?” Wells asked out of the blue walking into the room, ignoring Murphy once again. He sat down on the bed and waited for Murphy to turn around, he did.

“What has that got to do with anything?” Murphy muttered more to himself, thrown off by the sudden change in topic. “And who said you could come in here? What part of I don’t want to be around you, don’t you get?”

“Will you stop being a douche bag for one second and just sit down and listen to me? I promise this isn’t a waste of your time.”

Murphy shook his head in annoyance but he grabbed his gaming chair and swivelled it around so it was facing Wells, then he took a seat in it.

“Gina.” Wells said continuing his earlier statement. “Her name was Gina.”

“Why would I care about this?”

“They dated for about a year on and off and Bellamy was totally in love with her.”

Murphy snorted at this, “In love? Seriously? I don’t think Bellamy even knows the meaning of love, let alone been in love.”

“No seriously Murphy, he was really in love with her. He would have done anything for her; he was even going to move upstate just to be near her whilst she went to College.”

“He was?” This didn’t sound like the Bellamy that Murphy knew, it sounded like a completely different person.

Wells nodded, “Yeah they had a whole future mapped out for themselves.”

“What happened?”

“She woke up one morning and suddenly decided that she didn’t want that future with Bellamy anymore. She decided she wanted a different kind of future, a future with someone else.”

“That sucks.” And it did, not that Murphy had ever been cheated on.  But he could imagine how he would feel if Emori ever did that to him and it wasn’t a feeling he particularly liked.

“She was already up at college when she decided this and Bellamy had already picked out the place he would be living in for the next three years. All he had to do was sign the agreement and then he could move in, but she texted him before he could close the deal. She texted him telling him she didn’t want to be with him anymore, she said that she needed to focus more on her studies. He didn’t understand and wanted to speak to her face to face, but when he turned up at her dorm room he found her in bed with another guy. A guy he was friends with in back in high school, he ended up finding out that they’d been seeing each other behind his back for most of his and hers relationship.”

Murphy felt sorry for his friend _, nobody should have to go through that._

“That’s messed up.”

“Yeah it is.” Wells nodded.

“How do you even know about this?”

“He got drunk one night and broke down and told me.”

Murphy sighed, “Makes sense, I don’t think Bellamy knows how to talk about his feelings sober.”

Wells’ lips quirked up in the corners in amusement. “You know, ever since that whole thing happened with Gina, he’s never been in a stable relationship?”

“To be honest, I was shocked when you told me he had had a girlfriend. I just presumed he’d never had one.”

Wells shrugged, “Well that’s why. After Gina cheated on him, he decided that he wasn’t going to let another girl hurt him like that. That was when he made his rules about only seeing a girl once, why he never let anyone get too close.”

“It’s understandable why he wanted to do that.”

“Maybe. But it’s also unhealthy for him to continue on the way he has been.”

Murphy furrowed his eyebrows, “You say it’s unhealthy but aren’t you encouraging him to act this way? I mean why are you even telling me all of this?”

“Because I want to explain.”

“Explain what?” Now Murphy was confused.

“Why I picked Clarke.” His stomach dropped at the mention of her name and Wells looked sad.

“What do you mean?”

Wells sighed, “I’ve never seen him happy, not truly happy anyway. “

“Go on,” Murphy pushed.

“I didn’t know that she was going to be in that bar that night, I really didn’t.” He started and looked like he was being truthful. “But when I looked over and caught sight of her sitting there, an opportunity presented its self to me and I took it.”

Murphy stared at him wide eyed, not really sure where this conversation was going.

Wells continued on, “There’s rumours surrounding the college about Clarke, they call her the Ice Princess. They think she has no heart and she’s a real bitch to any guy that dares ask her out. I don’t know what’s true or not true about what goes around about her, but I what I do know is that before Bellamy, she had no interest in dating other guys. Any date she went on, she would always find something wrong with it, something that meant she didn’t have to see them again. I don’t know why she did it, but she did.”

“I never heard that about her,” Murphy interjected, “And I don’t think there’s anything cold about her, she’s always been nice to me.”

Murphy felt sad hearing that other people had talked about her this way.

_In the short time I’ve known her, Clarke has been nothing but nice to me. She has always been there for me when I needed advice and she was always fun to be around._ He reminisced.

“I know that and you know that,” Wells said, “But other people don’t have the same opinion.”

“Well screw them,” Murphy muttered angrily and Wells let out a smile laugh.

“Can I carry on? Or are you going to interrupt me every time I mention something bad about Clarke?”

Murphy sent him a scowl but let him to continue.

 “Then there was Bellamy,” Wells said carrying on from his earlier point. “The guy who slept with as many girls as he could, making sure that he never saw them again afterwards because he was too afraid of commitment.  He too had decided that he didn’t want to date, that he didn’t want any long term commitment. In all honesty, the plan at the time was perfect.”

“I don’t understand..,” Murphy trailed off.

“I came up with the bet when I saw Clarke sitting there, because I thought that they would be the perfect match. She didn’t want to date and no guy was persistent enough to try and persuade her too, but Bellamy was. Bellamy was persistent because I had provided him with an opportunity to get him self something he wanted. There would be no stopping him and I knew he would be able to wear her down and get her to agree to go on a date with him. And that’s exactly what he did.”

“I still don’t get it,” Murphy stared at him. “So you planned this whole thing and came up with this bet because you thought they would be a perfect match?”

 “I created the bet Murphy, so that they would fall for each other.”

Murphy sucked in a huge breath not expecting to hear that.

“I knew they would be perfect for each other and I knew Bellamy wouldn’t be able to turn the bet down. It was my way of introducing them and actually getting Clarke to go on a date with him. That way they would be able to have a chance to get to know each other and discover how much they would like each other.” Wells continued.

“What?” Murphy spluttered eyes wide. “Why would you want them to fall for each other?”

 “I watched my friends be miserable for so long that I decided to create something that could inevitably make them happy.” Wells’ voice had gone quite.

It took a moment for the words to process in Murphy’s brain.

_What the fuck?_

He stared up at him dumbfounded at this revelation and then asked again, “I still don’t get why you’re telling me, of all people, this information.”

Wells sent him a small smile, “I’m telling you this because I’m hoping you can understand why I’m doing this. I’m telling you this so maybe you don’t have to pack up your things and leave, so our friendship isn’t ruined. Yes I made the bet Murphy, but I’m not planning on actually going through with it. I’m just going along with it for now until Bellamy realises that he’s in love with her, and then everyone’s happy.”

Murphy felt the resentment from earlier seep into his skin at the mention of t bet, “I could just tell Bellamy you know? I could tell him everything that you just told me.”

“If you do, then that’s your choice.” Wells replied looking tired all of a sudden. “I hope that you won’t but I also won’t stop you, if that’s what you choose to do.”

Wells got up from the bed and peered down at Murphy, who stared back with an unreadable expression on his face. Wells offered him a small smile and turned to leave.  

“But what if doesn’t work?” Murphy asked suddenly and Wells turned back around. “There’s a chance that this could blow up in your face, Bellamy could still go through with this bet and he could still want to leave at the end of it.”

“I think it will work,” Wells smiled hopefully. “But if it doesn’t, then that’s something that I will have to deal with. Something I will have to try and fix, but I have to have hope that it will work. I have to have hope that both of my best friends can finally be happy, hopefully with each other.”

Wells walked towards the doorway, he stopped as he neared it and looked over his shoulder.

“I hope you can understand why I did this, and I hope you can forgive me.”

Then he left.

Murphy threw his head in hands, clutching at his hair.

_Fuck!_ His mind screamed. _This changes everything._

\-----

BBZZZ

The sound of the intercom vibrated off of the walls in the house making Clarke jump. She wasn’t expecting anyone. She placed the half empty tub of ice cream on her dresser and got up from her bed making her way to the intercom system. She pressed the button down.

“Yeah?”

“Hey princess, it’s me.”

She froze; she hadn’t known he was coming. She had been ignoring his texts and calls for the past three days, not being able to face speaking to him. She wasn’t as emotional as the last time she had seen him, she had had enough time to come to terms with everything she had heard and she wasn’t feeling as low as she had the first few days.

_You got this Clarke, just pretend and everything will be okay._

“I’ll buzz you up,” She replied and pressed another button that would allow him entry inside. It was only a few moments later when there came a knock at the door.

She opened the door and her breath caught. _Damn he looked good._

She mentally kicked herself, _Stop it Clarke. Remember what he’s doing to you._

“Hey, how are you?” He asked peering down at her with concern.

“I’m fine, why?” She blanched.

“Because you’ve been sick?” His eyebrows were furrowed.

_Oh shit, I forgot I told him I was sick._

“Yeah err,” She fumbled, “I’m feeling loads better today, and I think I’m over the worst of it.”

His face broke out in a smile. “That’s good to hear, I brought soup just in case you weren’t feeling up to eating anything solid.”

He looked down and Clarke followed his gaze, only just realising he was holding a container of what she now guessed was soup. Her heart swelled at his thoughtfulness and she had to shake her head, a pang of betrayal hitting her when she realised he wasn’t doing this because he really cared about her.

“Thanks,” She said quietly and took the container off of him, opening the door to let him in. She walked over to the kitchen counter and placed the soup on the side. Then she turned back to look at Bellamy, not moving from the side and standing awkwardly. She didn’t know what to do or how to act now and it was pissing her off. She didn’t like not having control of a situation and she definitely had no control over this one.

He strode over to her confidently and wrapped his arms around her back, pulling her into him. She tensed slightly at his touch.

“I’ve missed you princess,” He murmured staring down at her. “I’ve missed talking to you and I’ve missed seeing your face.”

“Don’t be such a wimp.” She muttered teasingly at him and his smile widened. He slowly leaned down towards her face and Clarke realising what he was about to do, quickly shoved her hand in his face, blocking his lips from connecting with hers.

“No don’t!” She half shouted as panic surged through her body. “I’m still sick and you might catch something.”

It was blatant lie on her end, not that he would know it, but she wasn’t sure if she wanted him to kiss her. She wasn’t sure if she could handle it.

He removed a hand from her back and grabbed her one blocking his view, instantly bringing it back down. “I don’t care if you’re sick or if I catch something, I haven’t seen you in three days and my lips need some loving right now.”

She snorted and it wasn’t a pretty sight, but she couldn’t help but find him hilarious. “You’re lips need some loving right now? Seriously? When did you become such a cheese ball?”

His eyes twinkled in amusement and he smirked. “Since I haven’t seen you. I’m telling you it’s made me an emotional wreck.”

Clarke giggled.

“Now stop distracting me woman,” He growled lowly and Clarke’s giggles instantly stopped. She stared into his eyes and her heart beat sped up as he lowered his head again. He captured her lips in his quickly and Clarke couldn’t help the moan that escaped from her mouth, when their tongues danced together. She had missed this too, as much as she wanted to deny it, she had. All too quickly it was over and Bellamy stared down at her with his eyebrows raised and a slight smirk to his mouth.

“Seems your lips needed some loving too princess,” He quipped at her.

Clarke felt her face heat up and she scowled up at him, quickly pushing herself away from his embrace. Jokily she said, “Fuck you Bellamy.”

And that was all it took or her to stop feeling so awkward and out of control. It was easy with Bellamy, it always had been and she was currently falling back into old patterns with him. Her plan was instantly forgotten and the feelings of hurt and betrayal she had felt over the past couple of days seemed to disappear.  It was like nothing had happened and as the day wore on and they talked and watched movies, nothing did.

Until at least much later that night.

“Echo brought someone back yesterday,” Bellamy casually brought her into the conversation as Clarke sat back on the couch, holding a bowl of popcorn.

“She did?” She asked not really sure why he was talking about her.

He nodded, reached over and grabbed a handful of popcorn, “I mean I know that myself and Murphy do it-“

Clarke gave him a sharp look and he threw her a sheepish smile, instantly correcting himself. “Did it, but it was just strange seeing her bring him back. I kind of understand how she must have felt when we brought girls back now.”

“I don’t understand..” She trailed off staring at him, “Are you saying that you felt jealous that she brought someone back because she feels jealous when you bring someone back?”

He nearly choked on his popcorn and Clarke had to rub his back as he spluttered and coughed.

“Where the fuck did that come from?” He asked incredulously once he got his breath back.

“Bellamy, think back to how you just said that sentence to me.” She narrowed her eyes at him, “You know she has feelings for you, and you know she didn’t like it when you brought girls home. You just said that you understand how that must have felt for her.”

His eyes went wide as she said this and it all clicked together in his head. He quickly and vigorously shook his head in a ‘no’ motion. “I swear I didn’t mean it like that, I just meant that I understand how it must have felt for her to hear us having sex. I never knew how thin the walls were and I pretty much heard everything last night, she woke me up three times and the third time I nearly threw up. I’m scarred for life.”

“Wait you heard her doing it?” Clarke’s eyes were now wide.

“Yeah, it was the worst moment of my life.” He groaned.

“Was the guy her boyfriend?” She asked.

“No, she met him that night.”

That sent a shudder through Clarke and upon seeing it, Bellamy side eyed her. “Why are you shuddering?”

“Listen I don’t care what Echo does, I’m not judging her for it because that’s her choice and she can do whatever she wants, but I just couldn’t do that.”

“What do you mean?” He sat up and positioned himself so he was staring at her.

“Like I just don’t think I could sleep with someone I’ve just met. I think sex should be between two people that love each other, that care about each other. I don’t know, I’ve just always viewed sex as something special between two people who share a connection. I don’t think I could have sex with someone that I wasn’t in a relationship with.”

She couldn’t believe she had just said that, and not because she was telling Bellamy about it, but because it was true. She hadn’t thought about sex in a long time, hadn’t been interested in it because she hadn’t been interested in being with anyone else. She had had sex twice in her life and both times they were with someone she loved.

She looked up at Bellamy feeling slightly embarrassed, but he was staring down at her with such adoration that she sucked in a breath. He smiled slowly at her and then leaned down and kissed her lightly on the head.

She smiled back at him once he moved back into his earlier position. “Sorry, I know that might be weird to hear. Most girls I know all hook up with guys they’ve just met, but I just see it differently.”

“I don’t think its weird Clarke, its one of the things I like most about you. You have self respect.”

Her smile widened at that and they stared at each for a few moments before Clarke noticed something register on his face. She wasn’t sure what it was but he quickly snapped his eyes away from her gaze, clearing his throat. Then he looked back down at her, the adoration he had previously looked at her with now gone, replaced with a confident cocky smile.

“Speaking of relationships..” He trailed off and she became confused.

“What about them?”

“We haven’t really discussed ours.” The change in topic was so sudden and the bluntness of his statement caught her off guard.

“Why do we need to discuss it?” She swallowed hard.

“Well, we’ve been together for over a month now and I was just wondering where you see us going from here?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” She said nervously. “I thought we were fine with where we’re at.”

“Well we’ve never really discussed it, have we?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

_Was he breaking up with me?_

“I like you Clarke, a lot. And I really see us going somewhere in the future. I know you said you wanted to take things slow and I’m still okay with that. I’ll go at whatever pace you want me to go at but were not exclusive and I really want us to be.”

“Wait what?”

_What the fuck is happening right now?_

“Are you really going to make me say it?”

Clarke nodded.

“I want you to be my girlfriend Clarke.”

At first a joyous feeling washed over her but it was quickly replaced with anger, as she suddenly remembered what was happening. She had gotten so wrapped up in him and their time together, that she had completely forgotten what he had done to her and she could see clear as day what he was doing now. She had mentioned that she wouldn’t sleep with anyone unless she was in a relationship with them and now here he was not two minutes later, asking her to be his girlfriend.

She had hoped that maybe none of this had been real or that there was some sort of explanation to what she had heard a few days ago. The realisation that it was all so real was a slap in the face for her and it hurt like a bitch.

“Are you asking me to be your girlfriend because of what I said before? So I’ll sleep with you?” She had meant for her tone to come out light and teasing but it was hard and cold.

She felt him stiffen beside her. “What? Of course not! Clarke I meant what I said, I like you, a lot. And I really want to be with you. I don’t care if you’re not ready to move on to that next step with me yet; I just want to spend time with you.”

The words stung.

_He is so fucking good at lying._

She tried to rearrange her expression on her face, tried to conceal what she was feeling. She forced a smile onto her lips. “I know I’m only messing with you.”

He searched her voice, looking for something, but when he didn’t find it, Clarke felt him relax beside her.

“So what do you say?” He asked. “Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

She didn’t feel like crying this time, she didn’t feel like locking herself away in her room pretending she was sick. She was over that, she was over him and his lies.

She was done feeling like shit over some guy who had no respect for her.

She was Clarke fucking Griffin and she wouldn’t allow herself to be treated like this.

So without hesitation she replied, “I would love too.”

\--

_There’s no way she can do this,_ Echo thought.   _She’s too sweet, too innocent._

She watched as Clarke paced her room, running her hands nervously through her hair.

**“** He actually did it,” Clarke muttered in surprise, “He actually asked me to be his girlfriend.”

Echo felt a coldness seep into her body, _He did what?_

“I didn’t think he would, in fact I wasn’t even expecting it.” Clarke sighed. “I was hoping that he was having second thoughts, especially with the way he was with me today. God he is so fucking convincing!”

She angrily kicked the leg of the chair Echo was sitting on.

“Hey,” Echo protested angrily, “I know you’re pissed but don’t take it out on my things.”

“Sorry,” Clarke replied sheepishly. “He just makes me so fucking angry!”

“Welcome to my world.” Echo muttered back sarcastically.

“I just don’t get it.” Clarke threw her hands in the air. “Why is this so important to him?”

She carried on like that for a few minutes, throwing questions in the air and not waiting for answer before she asked the next one. Echo let her talk to herself, watching in intrigue.

“You done?” She asked Clarke once she had stopped talking to herself, Clarke nodded back in defeat.

“What did you say?” Echo continued. “When he asked you to be his girlfriend?”

“I said I would love to.”

_He never asked me to be his girlfriend._ Echo thought bitterly.

“Don’t worry about it,” Clarke said and Echo stared at her in surprise, not realising that she had said them words out loud. “It’s not like he really wants me to be his girlfriend; he’s just doing it so he can win this bet.”

“Right,” Echo replied unconvinced. She had known Bellamy for a long time and there was no way he would ask her to be his girlfriend just to win a bet. He had a strict no girlfriend rule and he wouldn’t break that for anyone or anything.

“Anyway, this clearly shows that he isn’t backing down anytime soon. It proves he’s in it until he gets what he wants, so we need to get moving with this plan.”

“Are you sure you still want to do this?” Echo asked. “You could just confront him about it and get it over and done with.”

Clarke gave her a hard stare. “I told you, I want to make him pay. So we’re going through with it.”

Echo nodded and moved to grab the notebook and pen that was lay on her desk, she opened it up to a blank page and took the cap off of the pen. “Okay, hit me with some ideas.”

“Aren’t you the evil one? Shouldn’t you know what I should be doing?”

Echo gave her a hard stare, “Evil one? Really? Clarke look at what you want to do right now, you’re stooping down to his level. I’m pretty sure this puts you into the evil category along with me.”

“Whatever,” Clarke grumbled. “What if become over the top needy with him, that will annoy him right? Like if I constantly text and ring him when he’s not with me, demanding to know where he is and who he’s with?”

“That could work,” Echo nodded. “Boys usually hate it when their girlfriends are constantly texting them all the time asking where they are.”

“We could-“She got cut off by the shrill noise of her ringtone. She pulled it from her pockets and looked at the caller ID. Echo saw her body freeze and the phone rang a few times as she decided whether to answer it or not. She let out a huge sigh and pressed the answer button, bringing the phone up to her ear.

“Mom,” She stated simply, her tone cold. Echo had never heard her use that tone before, it made her quite scary.

“Has something happened?” Echo strained to hear what was being said on the other side, but the call volume was turned down so she could only hear Clarke’s side of the conversation.

“Yeah, that’s amazing, I’m really happy for him.”

She didn’t sound happy; she hadn’t even tried to fake it.

“I don’t know if I can make it, I have finals coming up soon and I really need to get started on my projects.”

Echo moved her stare back down to the pad and began jotting a few ideas down, whilst still tuning in on the conversation.

“Don’t start this again!” She heard Clarke hiss. “If I wanted to go to medical school I would have gone.”

_Maybe her and her mother don’t get along,_ Echo thought.

“I don’t have to listen this. Goodbye mother.” She heard her end the call and then looked up to see Clarke flopping down on the bed.

“What was that about?” Echo queried.

“Nothing.”

Echo shrugged as another idea popped in her head.

“Hey you know what you could do? Get him to meet your mom!”

“No! No way,” Clarke jumped off of the bed, a serious expression on her face. “He could not handle meeting my mother, I can’t even handle being around her.”

“Then that’s perfect. She might scare him away!”

“No Echo.” There was finality to her voice. “She already wants me to go to some high profile party and pretend to be a happy family. It’s not happening.”

“Listen, you’re from Polis, you’ve lived an entirely different life from Bellamy. It’s like you’re both from different worlds. If you take him to this party, he won’t know how to act. He’s not used to being around of a load of rich people and throwing your parents into the mix will just be the added pressure we need to get him to break this off.”

She saw Clarke thinking it over and pushed, “I think it’s a really good idea.”

Clarke sighed, “I’ll think about it okay?”

Echo smiled and nodded, “Now what about Wells?”

“I’ve already thought about this one.”

“You came prepared, I like it.”

“I had a few days to think it over.”

“Well do tell.” Echo encouraged.

“Wells’ dad is Thelonious Jaha.”

Echo’s eyes went wide, “No fucking way! Isn’t he running for mayor? I’ve never even heard of him having a son.”

“Yeah he’s running for mayor, he’s also a really big investor for Trikru Corp. You wouldn’t have heard about him having a son because Wells likes to keep out of the spotlight, he rarely goes to events with his dad, he hates them kinds of things.”

“I still can’t believe that’s his dad.”

“Well believe it because his dad’s mayor campaign is going to help us.”

“How?”

“Wells loves his dad; he’s always wanted his approval. So because his dad is so high profile at the minute, everybody is interested in his life. I want to show the world the kind of son he has, the son that sleeps with way too many girls and party’s too much. It will create such a scandal for Jaha that he’ll have to do damage control, thus bring Wells back into the spotlight, glitz and glamour that is Polis. The world he’s been trying so hard to distance himself away from.”

“Wow,” Echo’s eyes were wide again, “You’ve really thought this through huh?”

“When your best friend sets you up in bet, knowing you were going to get hurt. You have a lot to think about and trust me this was one of the tamer ideas I had.”

“Okay and Murphy?”

Clarke smiled sadly at his name, “I had an idea for him, one that involved making sure he and Emori never got together.”

“But?”

“But I changed my mind.” She said simply. “Sure he knew about the bet and he didn’t tell me, but he isn’t participating in it. And I can understand his loyalties to his friends; he’s known them both way longer than me.”

“I knew you were too sweet to do this.”

“I’m not being sweet; I’m just not going to punish someone for something they didn’t do.”

“Whatever you say Clarke,” Echo muttered. “I mean, Bellamy only seems to be getting a few needy phone calls, Murphy’s not getting anything done to him and Wells seems to have caught the worst of it. Is that really fair?”

“It’s not about what’s fair, it’s about what’s right. They are going to know what they did to me was wrong. Plus a few needy phone calls aren’t all I’m going to be doing to Bellamy. My plans for him are far from over.”

Echo cocked her eyebrow at her.

_Maybe she wasn’t so sweet after all._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally have an update! Whoop! My laptop is finally fixed which means regular updates now! The next update will be up either this Saturday or Sunday! Thank you for the lovely comments and kudos, always appreciated. X


	12. Chapter 12

**26 MISSED CALLS AND 30 NEW TEXT MESSAGES**

That was what Bellamy saw when he checked his phone after a long 8 hour shift.

_What the fuck?_

His stomach instantly dropped and a feeling of dread washed over him as he unlocked his phone.

_What if something has happened to Octavia? What if there’s been an emergency?_

He swallowed hard and checked his call log first, he quickly scrolled down the list of missed calls. Two were from Murphy and the rest were all from Clarke.

_Fuck, what if it’s Clarke that somethings happened to?_

His fingers moved quickly as he exited his call log and checked his messages, there one was from Murphy.

**From: Murphy**

**We need to talk.**

There was only one from him, the rest again, were from Clarke. Most of them repeated the same message, but each one seemed to get more urgent as the time went on.

**From: Princess**

**Hey how are you? X**

-

**From: Princess**

**Do you want to do something today _? X_**

**_-_ **

**From: Princess**

**Why aren’t you replying to me? Are you okay? X**

**_-_ **

**From: Princess**

**Have I done something wrong?**

**-**

**From: Princess**

**Bellamy?**

**-**

**From: Princess**

**Where are you?**

**-**

**From: Princess**

**Are you ignoring me? Are you with someone else?**

**-**

**From: Princess**

**ANSWER YOUR PHONE.**

Those were just a few of the texts that she had sent, all with different time stamps.

He quickly went back into his call log and looked for her name, pressing the dial button. The phone rang out a few times before she finally picked up.

“Clarke?” He said before she could speak, “What’s going on? Is everything okay? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” She replied rather coldly.

“Are you sure?” He asked his panic not subsiding, “I had so many missed calls and messages from you, I thought something was wrong.”

“Something is wrong,” She huffed. “Where have you been?”

Feeling slightly caught off guard he said, “I’ve been at work, you know that. I told you yesterday I was covering Monty’s day shift.”

“I don’t remember you telling me that,” She sounded off with him. “Where have you really been Bellamy? Have you been with another girl?”

_What?_

“I’ve been at work Clarke,” He mumbled the panic from earlier disappearing. “Why would you think I’ve been with another girl?”

“Oh I don’t know,” She said sarcastically, “Maybe because you’ve been ignoring my calls and texts all day.”

He began to feel irritated by her now, he didn’t understand where any of this was coming from or why she was acting so cold with him.

“I’ve been at work Clarke,” He repeated for the third time. “I can’t answer my phone whilst I’m on shift, you know that.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Why are you being like this? Why would I want to be around another girl when I’ve got you? I would never do anything like that to hurt you.”

He heard her intake a sharp breath and the phone went silent for a few seconds.

“Clarke?”

“You should tell that to the countless girls’ hearts you’ve broken after you slept with them and never called them back.”

It was a low blow and it stung Bellamy, no matter how true it was.

“Clarke you knew about my past before we got together and you said you were okay with it.”

“Maybe I lied,” She put emphasis on the word lied.

“Clarke please,” He pleaded but it fell on deaf ears as she had already hung up on him. Realising this he angrily shoved his phone into his pocket.

“Fuck!” he shouted into the cold air and his co-worker gave him a funny look.

“You okay bro?” He asked.

“Fine,” Bellamy muttered back to him and grabbed his time sheet. He quickly clocked out and got the hell out of there, in no mood to make small talk with the other workers.

He had no idea what was happening between him and Clarke right now and she was driving him crazy. She had been off with him for the past couple of days now, barely answering his calls or replying to his texts. She never really wanted to hang out which meant Bellamy had turned up at her house unexpectedly just so he could see her. When they did hang out, she barely spoke to him let alone kissed him and he was beginning to think something was seriously wrong. Sure, he had seen this type of behaviour from Clarke before when he had began pursuing her, but this felt different to how she had acted with him those first few days and he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

All he knew was that ever since he had asked her to be his girlfriend, everything seemed to have gone wrong from there.

 _Girlfriend,_ He thought and shook his head. He couldn’t believe that he was using that term towards a girl and it always felt weird when it came out his mouth. He had a strict no girlfriend rule which he had enforced a couple of years back, he had never broken the rule and he had thought that he never would. Not until Clarke.

When she had told him that she wouldn’t sleep with someone she wasn’t in love or in a relationship with, he had had such a huge amount of respect for her. It didn’t matter how much he got to know her, she was constantly surprising him and he liked it. And at the time it was such a refreshing thing to hear, but then he had begun to realise his predicament with that sentence. There was no way she would sleep with him unless he asked her to be official with him and the thought had terrified him. He had never broken that rule, not for anyone.

He couldn’t explain the huge amount of guilt that surged through him when he had asked her to be his girlfriend. He knew he wasn’t doing it for the right reasons and he was beginning to realise the seriousness of what he was doing to her. He didn’t sleep that night, constantly tossing and turning the guilt eating away at him and he went to bed wondering how he was going to carry on with this bet. 

He shook his head, trying to rid his thoughts of the memory, not really wanting to think about that again.

He entered his home and it was silent, so he guessed that everyone must have been out. He made a beeline straight for his fridge and took out a cold beer. Making his way over to the couch, he flopped down on it and let out a sigh, the tension in his shoulder easing off a bit.

Before he took a swig of his beer, he heard his phone ring so he quickly took it out of his pocket hoping it was Clarke.

It was Octavia.

He quickly pressed the answer button.

“Hey O,” He answered, his voice low and tone sounding tired.

“Hey,” She said slowly. “Why do you sound so down?”

“I’m not,” He protested.

“Bellamy, I’m your sister,” She said simply. “I know when somethings wrong with you, spill.”

He sighed again and rubbed his free hand over his face, massaging his skin. “It’s Clarke.”

“What has she done?” Octavia instantly went on the defensive, “Do I need to kill her?”

This got a laugh out of him, “No O, no killing necessary. You don’t need to be so protective of me.”

“Me? Protective?” She scoffed, “Have you looked in the mirror lately? The first time you met Lincoln and I told you we were together, you punched him.”

He rolled his eyes at her, she was being over dramatic. “He deserved it, he lunged at me.”

“He was attempting to hug you,” She replied deadpanned and he laughed again the tension fully leaving his body.

“Who hugs someone they’ve just met?”

“He has a sensitive soul unlike you.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever, I’m the big bad brother, I get it.”

“No you’re just over protective sometimes.”

“You call it over protective; I call it looking out for you.”

“Call it what you want,” She mumbled. “Stop changing the subject anyway, what did Clarke do?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t really think she did anything,” He said feeling the tension reappear around his shoulders, “I think I’ve done something to upset her but I have no idea what it is.”

“What do you mean?” He had confused her, he could tell.

“I don’t know, she’s just been really off with me ever since I asked her to be my girlfriend.”

“I still can’t believe you asked to be your girlfriend. Who knew the player could be tamed.”

“Believe me, no one was more surprised at that than me,” He said.

He heard her giggle down the phone and then she said, “Go on.”

“She just doesn’t reply to my texts and she doesn't answer my calls, she rarely wants to hang out anymore and when she does she doesn’t really speak to me. I got off from work and found loads of calls and messages from her and when I rang her to check if she was okay, she basically accused me of cheating on her. She didn’t believe me when I told her I was at work!” He vented to her.

“Was you at work?” She asked and even though it wasn’t an accusation, Bellamy still felt offended by the question.

“Of course I was! Why I would I lie?”

“I’m not saying you’re lying Bellamy, but everyone knows what you used to be like with girls.”

“Used!” He practically shouted down the phone. “Past tense, used to be like that. I’m not like that anymore.”

“Okay calm down,” She said quickly, “I’m not accusing you!”

“I know I’m sorry for shouting, I’m just sick of my past being thrown into my face.”

“I’m sorry if It sounded like I was accusing you, I wasn’t.”

“I know,” He pulled at his hair, feeling stressed.

“How about I speak to her?”

“I don’t think that will help the situation O.”

“How do you know? Girls talk.” She was trying to be helpful. “She’s coming to Jaspers party tomorrow right?”

“I don’t know,” He said honestly and he didn’t. “I sent her a text asking her if she wanted to come but like I said she’s not been replying to my texts.”

“Well I’m sure she’ll come and I can invite her dress shopping tomorrow to find an outfit for the party, then I can have a chat with her.”

“You can try.” At this point he was open to anything to try and sort things out with Clarke, not really speaking to her the past few days had been horrible for him. It hadn’t been the same without her around.

“Okay, I’ll let you know what I find out. In the meantime, let her have time to calm down then try and speak to her. It’s no good trying to talk to her if you’re both fighting.”

“I know,” He nodded in understanding even though she couldn’t see him. “I’m sorry; I’ve totally took up too much of this phone call to complain about my love life. Why did you call? Did you have something you wanted to tell me?”

“No,” She said rather quickly. “I just wanted to check in with you and see how you were.”

“Well you already know the answer to that. What about you? Are you okay?.. How’s Lincoln?”

It took a great effort for him to ask about Lincoln, but ever since he had had a chat with Clarke about his behaviour towards him, he had tried to make the effort with him. If not for himself then for his sister. They chatted on the phone for another ten minutes, Octavia updating him on the happenings of her life now she was back in town. She had returned to her job and so had Lincoln; they were both getting back into the mix of things and getting back to daily life. Once he put the phone down, he took a long swig of his beer and relaxed into the couch.

But no sooner had he done this, he heard the front door open and close. He looked over to see Murphy walking in and he instantly tensed up again.

_God, can’t I catch break tonight or does everyone want to pick a fight with me today?_

He could tell Murphy was still pissed at him with the way he clenched his jaw when he seen him. He knew that Murphy wanted to talk to him because of the text he had received off of him earlier, but he was in no mood for another argument.

Murphy walked past him and a few minutes later he joined him on the couch a beer in his hand. They sat in silence not looking at each for a few minutes and Bellamy was beginning to feel uncomfortable. He hadn’t spoken to him since Murphy had told him he was moving out and it wasn’t from lack of trying. Murphy just hadn’t wanted anything to do with him or his explanations and Bellamy could understand why.

“I’ve decided I’m not moving out,” Murphy said quickly and broke the silence.

Bellamy’s head whipped round so fast to stare at him that he cricked his neck and winced at the pain.

“What?” He asked rubbing the side of his neck.

“I’m not moving out,” Murphy repeated.

“Why?”

“Wow, sound happy why don’t you?” He said sarcastically and his lips curled up into a half smile letting Bellamy know he was only messing with him.

“Sorry, I’ve had a rough day.”

“I’m not going to beat around the bush,” Murphy said. “I still don’t agree with what you’re doing, I think it’s wrong.”

Bellamy nodded in understanding.

“And I meant what I said; I don’t want any part in it. If you and Wells want to discuss that shit, do it elsewhere and especially don’t do it in front of me.”

“I won’t, I promise.”

“Bellamy you’re one of my best friends and as much as I think you’re an ass sometimes, you’ve always been there for me. You were there when my Mom died and you took me in when I had nowhere to go and had no job. I can never repay you for all those things you did for me, but I want you to know that I really appreciate it.”

“I know you do,” Bellamy said his voice quiet.

“That’s why I’ve decided to stay. Because even though I know what an ass you are, you’re also a really good friend and I don’t want to throw that friendship away. You’re family man.”

Murphy’s voice had choked up slightly and Bellamy detected the emotion in his voice. He too was feeling slightly emotional. Funnily enough they had hated each other when they first met, but in the end they had struck up such a close friendship that Bellamy classed Murphy as his brother. He didn’t want to lose that either.

“I’m sorry Murphy,” Bellamy said his voice strained. “I shouldn’t have put you in that position especially with the friendship you now have with Clarke. I don’t want you to move out man, you’re my brother.”

They looked at each other for a few moments, both smiling but Murphy quickly coughed and looked away breaking the moment. Bellamy too looked away and recollected himself.

They weren’t girls and they didn’t do the whole heart to heart thing, that was the closet they would get to expressing their feelings to each other, but to both of them that small interaction meant a lot.

“You need to get your shit together Bellamy. In all honesty you need to tell Wells that you’re done with this bet. You can deny it all you want but we both know you have feelings for Clarke and there’s no way you’re going to be able to go through with this.”

Bellamy didn’t say anything, couldn’t really as the earlier feelings of guilt were coming back. He didn’t really know what to say to Murphy about it, he was confused as hell about everything when it came to Clarke.  Murphy didn’t push him for answer, he just needed to say it and hope that his friend would listen.

“When you see her, you can thank her again for me.” He continued and Bellamy looked at him with furrowed eyebrows.

“Thank her for what?”

“She didn’t tell you?” Murphy scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

“Tell me what?”

“She helped me ask Emori to be my girlfriend today. Told her they were going to have a girly day at her place so she wouldn’t get suspicious about what I was doing all day. Clarke basically gave me the idea to cook a really romantic dinner at Emori’s and you know me, I haven’t a clue what the word romantic means. So she bought all the stuff I would need and left me specific instructions on how to set everything up and what it was I was supposed to cook. I’ve never cooked anything so specific in my life and it surprisingly turned out okay. Emori loved it; you should have seen her face. I couldn’t have done it without Clarke though, so when you see her, just tell her I said thanks again.”

“Wait. You and Emori are official now?”

“Yeah, can you believe it? I’m officially off the market!”

“I’m happy for you man!” He lifted his beer and Murphy clonked it in a ‘congrats’ motion.

“Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest but I’ve got some unpacking to do so I’m going to go do that. Beers later?”

Bellamy nodded but he wasn’t really listening. He felt Murphy get up from the couch and knew he must have left the room but he wasn’t really focusing. He had told Murphy he was happy for him and he really was, but he couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed that Clarke hadn’t told him about what she was doing. He hadn’t spoken to her in a few days and it bugged him that she wasn’t sharing these things with him, no matter how little they were. He found that he missed their conversations and jokey text messages. He missed hearing her laugh and missed the feel of hair between his fingers when he ran his hands through it. He missed everything about her and it all made sense to him.

He hadn’t wanted to admit it, felt that by shutting away his feelings he wouldn’t care what happened. But it mattered _, god it mattered_ because he knew then and there that he couldn’t go through with this bet any longer. He couldn’t hurt her, couldn’t even let himself think about betraying her like that.

He’d felt these feelings once before in his life so he knew the signs, it wasn’t unfamiliar to him. But it scared him.

Scared him so much that he would happily pack a bag and run for the hills, but strangely enough he didn’t want too. As much as it was a scary feeling for him, it was also an exhilarating one. One that made his pulse quicken and made his heart beat a little faster.

He was falling in love with her.

\---

Bellamy hadn’t been listening when Murphy had asked him if they wanted to go for beers, so he had forgotten all about it when Murphy had burst in his room asking if he was ready. He wasn’t really feeling up to it after the revelation he had just had, but knowing he had only just made up with his friend he didn’t want to act like a jerk by blowing him off. So he got off of his butt, still wearing his work clothes, and made his way to the bar with him.

Once there Wells was already waiting for them with a round of beer in and all three boys stood in an awkward silence staring at each other.

“Shots?” Wells had asked them nervously.

“Fuck yeah!” Murphy laughed and took a seat on the stool beside him. And that was all it took for the tension to be removed from the air. All three boys were back to their usual selves in no time, all laughing and joking around with each other. Bellamy had been careful not to bring up Clarkes name and there was no mention of the bet from Wells’ side, so everything was going swimmingly at this point, at least it was until Echo walked into the bar.

“Fuck,” He heard Murphy mutter beside him, “Crazy bitch at 3 o'clock.”

Bellamy furrowed his eyebrows and turned to where he was staring. Upon catching sight of her, Echo’s eyes also met his and she smirked at him. He groaned and Murphy rubbed his back sympathetically.

“Sorry bro, when she text me asking where we was, I didn’t think she would turn up.”

Bellamy turned to glare at him, “Are you really that stupid or do you just pretend to be?”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s really that stupid,” Wells jumped in.

“Hey this isn’t gang up on Murphy day!” Murphy protested feigning hurt.

“Hey guys,” Her low voice caught the attention of everyone.

Wells nodded at her and Murphy threw her a quick ‘hey’ but Bellamy turned towards her with a questioning gaze.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well its nice to see you too Bellamy,” She breathed out a laugh. “I was wondering if we could talk.”

“Can’t it wait?” He asked rudely. She was the last person he wanted to have a conversation with right now.

He saw the pang of hurt in her expression and felt slightly bad for being so rude with her.

“Not really,” She shook her head. “I need to speak to you, alone.”

She put empathises on the word ‘alone’ and sent a pointed look towards Wells and Murphy who quickly got the hint. Or should he say Wells got the hint, Murphy instead took it to mean she was inviting him into the conversation and plonked his butt back in the stool next to him. He gave Bellamy a goofy smile, before Wells grabbed him by the back of his jacket and yanked him off of his stool.

“Hey!” He shouted as Wells dragged him away.

“When she said alone, she was telling us to fuck off, not sit there and join in!” Bellamy heard Wells chastise him as they went to the other side of the bar.

He watched as Echo took a seat next to him and she ordered a drink. She didn’t say anything as she waited so Bellamy instead filled the silence.

“You’ve been a shitty person lately Echo,” He told her and her eyebrows shot up in surprise. “And I don’t understand why you’re acting like this with people because I know you. I know that deep down under all that hatred you seem to give off, how much of a kind person you really are.”

She smiled sadly at him but didn’t give him a reply to his statement; instead she veered off topic completely.

“I know about the bet.” She said simply and Bellamy froze.

“I don’t know what you mean,” He responded lamely, choosing to feign ignorance.

“Cut the bullshit Bellamy, for once in your life.” She said harshly. “I heard you guys talking in the living room about it, I know everything.”

Panic seized him and he felt like he couldn’t breathe, there was only one thing he cared about in this moment.

“Did you tell Clarke?” He asked desperately searching her face for answer, “Does she know?”

Echo’s expression didn’t give anything away, it was neutral.

“No,” She shook her head. “I didn’t tell Clarke.”

“Why not? You’d love nothing more than to fuck this up for me, so why haven’t you told her?”

She fixed her icy stare onto him and it sent shivers down his back.

“As you said before, deep down I’m actually a kind person,” She reminded him. “Just because I hate her doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. I wouldn’t hurt you like that.”

Bellamy felt himself relax and all his worries disappeared when she added, “I promise you, I won’t tell her about this.”

He shook his head confused by this whole situation.

“So why are you here then? Did you just want to come to tell me that?”

“No,” She smiled at him, “Since I found out about this bet, there’s been a lot of questions I’ve had and I want answers.”

“Okay, fire away.”

They were interrupted by one of the bar staff bringing over Echo’s drink, he waited whilst she paid and then when she left, Echo just stared down into her drink.

“I need you to be completely honest with me Bellamy,” She started. “No bullshit, just the truth. I already know the answers to what I’m about to ask you but I need to hear you say them.”

“Okay.” He nodded in understanding though he had no fucking clue what she was talking about.

“Hypothetically speaking, once this bet is over and once Clarke is out of your life for good, will there ever be a chance for us to work things out and get together? Can we ever be an actual couple?”

She stared at him with such hope that Bellamy thought about lying to her, but he knew he couldn’t. He couldn’t play with her feelings like that and lead her on.

“No,” He hadn’t needed to think about it and he felt shitty for saying it, but she had asked him to be completely honest with her and that’s what he did.

She sucked in breath and looked down at the floor quickly.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

She nodded and looked back up at him, her eyes filled with tears. “Yeah, I was expecting that answer. I just wasn’t expecting what it would feel like when I actually heard it and it sucks.”

“Why are you asking me that?”

“Bellamy you know I’m in love with you, I’ve told you a million times.” She was right, he knew. He had just always ignored it, thinking she would eventually get over it. “And before I knew about the bet, I had hoped Clarke would just be a phase. Another notch on your belt, but she wasn’t. Even knowing about the bet now, I know she isn’t just a phase for you. She’s here to stay.”

“Why would you think that?”

“You asked her to be your girlfriend Bellamy! No bet would make you break that rule. I know you and I know how dead set you were on enforcing that. I know that you care about her more than you let on.”

“If that’s what you think, then you’re entitled to that opinion.” He tried to brush off her comments but they stuck with him.

“You can deny it all you want Bellamy, but I’ve seen and heard everything I’ve needed to, to know that you care about her.”

“Really?” He said sarcastically, “And what have you seen oh physic one?”

He didn’t want to talk about Clarke with Echo; he didn’t want to talk about Clarke with anyone. He needed some time sort through his feelings and talking about them with everyone else was only making him more confused.

She looked at him with utter devastation in her eyes. “All I know is that you have _never_ looked at me the way you look at her. You’ve never looked at any girl they way you look at her and I don’t think you ever will.”

“And how do I look at her exactly?”

“When you look at her, its like everyone around you melts away and you are the only two people in the room. You look at her like you would do absolutely anything in the world for her, like you would jump in a bullet for her if you had too. You look at her like you’re in love with her.”

“I’m not in love with her,” He protested and watched as she wiped away a falling tear.

“Maybe not yet, but you’re falling for her aren’t you?” Her stare was so intense that he couldn’t help but nod yes to the question. Sure he had admitted as much to himself earlier, but it was a whole different story admitting it to someone else. Admitting it to another person made this thing a whole lot more real for Bellamy. He couldn’t pretend anymore, he couldn't shake away the feelings and act like he never felt them.

“I’m so-“

“Don’t!” She quickly cut of his apology. “Don’t you dare apologise to me for having feelings for someone else. You can’t help who fall for Bellamy, I should know.”

“I know but-“He tried again and she cut him off.

“No buts,” She said. “I needed to hear you say them words out loud. I’ve spent so much of my time hoping we would get back together that I’ve let it consume my life, and it’s making me so unhappy. I don’t want to be unhappy anymore Bellamy and as much as it sucks to know that you’ll never want me, its what I need to know so I can finally move on from you.”

She picked up her drink and downed it quickly, carrying on. “You’re such a good person Bellamy. I know you probably don’t feel like it right now with the bet and all, but you are. You have done so much for the people you surround yourself with, take me for example; I was in such a bad place when my father kicked me out, I knew I couldn’t ever step foot back in Azgeda again. I had no money, no job and no family but that didn’t matter to you. You took me in anyway and you provided me with a roof over my head and food in my stomach. You did the same for Murphy when his mom died.  It didn’t matter that I couldn’t help out with the bills or the rent at the time; you didn’t care as long as you knew I was okay. Not many people could do that and I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for you.”

He stared at her listening to her speaking, faintly recognising someone he had known a long time ago.

“I wasn’t that much of a good person when I started up the whole ‘no strings attached business’ with you.”

She laughed, “You always have to focus on the negatives don’t you? That was a decision we made together, that wasn’t all on you.”

“I suppose.”

“I know I’m not the same girl you met way back when, I’ve changed a lot. You said so yourself, I’m a shitty person.”

He instantly felt guilty.

“I didn’t mean-“

“No,” She shook her head. “You were right, I am shitty person. But it’s who I am, and I’ve tried to be nicer, I’ve tried to change things about myself but I just can’t. Those traits about me that you don’t like are like a second skin to me, I can’t seem to shake them. But someone somewhere will accept me for those traits; love me despite my flaws, even if I hate them myself.”

“I hope you find that Echo, I really do. I hope you find the right guy that does everything in his power to make you happy.” He meant it.

He and Echo had been through some shit in their time together, they had had their ups and downs. But she too- like murphy -was like family to him and he cared about her wellbeing and he wanted her to be happy.

Do you ever reckon we can be-“

“Friends?” She finished for him and he nodded, her eyes twinkled in amusement. “Not right now no. I need some time to able to get over you, for real this time. I’m going to stay at my friends for a while, don’t worry I’m not moving out, I just need some space. Maybe one day we can get back to that place that we were once at.”

Bellamy nodded and gave her a small smile. “I can work with that.”

“Well I have to go, I need to make arrangements and pack up some things. I’m going to stay for the party but then I’m going to leave. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

He nodded and stood up from his chair, he made a move towards her to hug her, but she shook her head fiercely at him in a no motion which stopped him in his tracks. Instead she clasped his hand with hers and squeezed it slightly. 

“Goodbye Bellamy,” Was all she said and then she was gone. He didn’t turn to stare after her, he wasn’t sad that she was leaving. It was the best thing for the both of them right now and if Echo needed to do this, he was all for it.

Tonight had been a night of reconciliations for Bellamy. First he had made up with Murphy, then he, Wells and Murphy had all made up and then Echo had come to talk to him. Sure he and Echo weren’t ever going to best friends, but they sure as hell would be on better terms than they had ever been with each other.

 _Maybe it’s a sign,_ He thought. _Maybe Clarke will forgive me if I ring her and talk to her._

Surged with hope, he quickly pulled out his phone and phoned her. He felt his friends re-join him at the bar and he looked up to see Wells staring at him quizzically. He turned to stare down at his drink, listing to the phone ring out. She didn’t pick up and it went straight to voicemail.

Bellamy angrily slammed his phone down on the bar and downed his drink.

_Maybe she doesn’t want to forgive me after all._

Not that he even knew to the full extent what it was he had done wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay i know. I officially suck at updating this story on time. This chapter was sooo long that i had to re edit it and split it into two chapters. The next one will be up soon, I hope you like it. :)


	13. Chapter 13

The phone vibrated again in her hand and Clarke inwardly groaned.

She had been ignoring the calls from her mother for the past week, not wanting any type of communication from her. It was party season in Polis, which meant that it was the time of year where Clarke’s mother expected her to attend every party that they were invited too. Where there would be a series of photographers and TV crews waiting, so she could pretend to the world that they were a happy family. Especially now with the bombshell that she had dropped on Clarke last week, the press were having a field day with the news and wanted nothing more than to nosey their way into the Griffins lives.

The first big party was due to happen in two days time and Clarke’s mother had been hounding her with calls and texts everyday, trying to persuade her to attend. There was only so many days that Clarke could ignore her for before her mother would turn up at her apartment and that was something Clarke definitely didn’t want to happen. It would just give her mother an excuse to criticize all the choices she was making for herself.

The phone vibrated again, sending tremors up Clarkes hand and this time she did groan out loud, earning herself a few funny looks from the peers that surrounded her. She didn’t want to speak to her mother, especially not now. She’d already put away a few too many pre drinks when she was getting ready with the girls and she’d had at least two beers since she had joined the party, so she was feeling pretty buzzed.

“Is everything okay princess?” A voice breathed down her neck from behind her, sending a stab of desire through her body. She instantly tensed up at the presence of his body, but once his hands snaked around her waist, turning her to face him she felt herself melting into his touch. Something she would kick herself for later.

She stared up into his chocolate brown eyes and nodded slightly.

“You sure?” He asked.

“Yeah, it’s just my mom. She’s been calling me non stop all day and I really don’t want to speak to her.”

“Why don’t you want to speak to her?”

“Because I’ve had too much to drink, plus I wouldn’t be able to hear her over this music anyway.”

That was only partly the reason and Clarke felt slightly guilty for how easy the lie had come out. She hadn’t wanted to lie to him, but she needed to protect herself from him and she didn’t want tell him the real reason because she knew deep down, he really didn’t care.

“It could be an emergency Clarke,” He said gently to her. “Why don’t you take the call in the garage? You won’t be able to hear the music as much in there and nobody goes in there, so you’ll be able to have some privacy.”

Clarke’s eyes narrowed at him suspiciously, “Why are you trying to get rid of me? So you can go talk to another girl?”

The accusation hung in the air and Bellamy stared at her in surprise.

“I’m not trying to get rid of you; I’m just saying that your mom could be calling because of an emergency and that you can use the garage to talk to her. There’s no double meaning behind the sentence.”

She didn’t reply, didn’t know what to say him. This was a common occurrence for her these days, if she wasn’t talking to him, she was shouting at him or just being generally mean.

His gaze turned sad as he stared at her, “Clarke, I don’t know what it is that I’ve done, but whatever it is, I’m sorry.”

_Sorry?_ She thought bitterly, _Yeah right._

Sure he seemed sincere when he said it, but Clarke had gotten used to him pretending to give a shit about her and she just didn’t buy his bullshit anymore.

“Whatever,” She brushed him off. “I don’t want to talk about it. I’m going to call my mom back.”

It was the last thing she wanted to do, but she would rather speak to her mom than speak to him. She made a move to walk past him, but his hand gripped her arm gently.

“Wait,” He said and Clarke turned back around to face him.

“Can we talk once you’ve spoken to your mom?” He continued, his voice pleading.

“We can’t just leave the party Bellamy, it’s rude.”

“It’s my house, we can leave it whenever we want,” He smirked at her but quickly dropped it when he saw that she wasn’t amused. “Please Clarke; I really want to talk to you.”

She hadn’t understood why Jasper was having a party at Bellamy’s house, she didn’t understand why he wasn’t having it at his own house. But when she was upstairs getting ready with the girls, Octavia had explained that it didn’t matter who it was, but whenever they had a party for someone it was always at Bellamy’s house. It was kind of a ritual for them.

Clarke felt her resolve weakening when he spoke to her; there was a kind of desperation in his eyes that made her want to forgive him for everything he had done to her.

“Maybe,” She whispered and hope surged through Bellamy. “I gotta go.”

She briskly walked past him, through to the kitchen where she snatched a half empty bottle of vodka from the side. Then she made her way to the door at the other end of the kitchen that led through to the garage. Once closing the door behind her she realised Bellamy was right, you couldn’t really hear the music in here. You could still hear the thumping of the speakers penetrating the walls, but it was much quieter in here and she could think properly.

She reached for the light on the wall and quickly switched it on, then she moved over to some crates that were lying on the floor and flipped one over so she could sit on it. She unlocked her phone and called her mom back. It barely rang before she answered.

“Clarke,” Her mother answered disapprovingly.

“Abby,” Clarke mimicked back.

“Where have you been? I’ve been calling you for over a week, is it really that hard to call your own mother back?”

Clarke took the lid off of the vodka bottle and took a gulp of it, screwing her face up at the taste as the liquid burned the back of her throat.

“It is when I don’t want to speak to you.”

“Don’t take that tone with me young lady,” Her mother chastised her. “You know how important this party is for your step father, it will be good exposure for the company and we really need you to be there for it.”

The words stung Clarke and she felt her eyes water.

“He is not my step father,” She growled down the phone.

“Clarke,” Her mother groaned, “Not this again. For once in your life, can you stop making everything about you?”

Clarke took another swig from the bottle and didn’t reply. 

“Look,” Abby continued. “Not only is this a good thing for Kane, but it can be a good thing for you too. I was speaking with one of my colleague’s from work and her son is currently studying Medicine at Polis College. He’s going to be at the party and it would be great for you to meet him, you never know where things could lead between the two of you.”

“I’m perfectly capable of choosing my own suitors.” Clarke huffed, this was one of the reasons she hadn’t wanted to speak to her. She was always interfering in her dating life, constantly trying to set her up with people.

“Don’t be like that Clarke, you haven’t dated anyone since-“

“Don’t you dare bring his name into this!” Clarke’s voice had gotten higher now, emotional.

“I’m just saying maybe its time for you to get back out there, start dating and meeting new people.”

“That’s not for you decide. If I want to meet new people, I will. But on my own terms, not yours.”

Her mother ‘tsked’ at her and let out an annoyed sigh. “When will you start acting like a grown up and start having a normal conversation with me? You don’t have to get offended at everything I say.”

“We can have a normal conversation when you stop trying to control my life.”

“I give up with you,” Her mother replied sounding tired. Clarke heard a rustling on the other side of the phone and a new voice joined the conversation.

“Hey Clarke.”

It was Kane and Clarke felt herself soften at hearing his voice. She didn’t have the best relationship with her mother and she hated her for getting with Kane so soon after her dad died, but she couldn’t deny that he was a good man. He had been there for her when she needed it and he always seemed to calm the arguments she had with her mother. They weren’t close but she did respect him and the work that he did.

“Hey Kane.”

“Look I know your mother can come across as being a little pushy,” She heard her mother shout “hey” in the background, but he carried on talking regardless, “But she just wants what’s best for you that’s all.”

“I’m sure she does,” Clarke replied bitterly.

Knowing not to push her on the subject he said, “I would really love it if you came to this party Clarke, it would mean a lot to me. But if you decide that you don’t want to come then I will understand, there’s no pressure for you to attend.”

Her mother had pulled out the trump card.

She could say no to her mom all day long, but saying no to Kane, especially after everything he had done for her, made her feel guilty. It wasn’t his fault that she didn’t get a long with her mother or maybe it was slightly, she just didn’t blame him for the choices her Mother made. She blamed her Mom.

“I’ll see what I can do,” She said simply. It wasn’t a straight up yes, but she knew as soon as he asked that she would be attending.

“Okay, well just let me know as soon as you know if you can attend.”

“I will.”

“Good” He said and after a beat he added. “Do you want me to put you back on to your mother?”

“I’m good,” She said quickly and she heard him chuckle.

“Well I’ll speak to you soon then, goodbye Clarke.”

She heard her mother in the background telling him to wait so she could speak to her, so Clarke quickly said her goodbyes and hung up before her mother could get the phone.

She dropped the phone on the floor at the side of her and took another swig from the bottle.

\-----------

“Hey O,” Bellamy said once he caught sight of his sister, she was dancing with Lincoln in the far corner of the living room. “Can I speak to you for a minute?”

She looked up at him with a smile and nodded.

He moved over to the other side of the wall where no one could bother him.

“What’s up big brother?” She asked as she came up to him, “Clarke giving you a hard time again?”

“Something like that,” He murmured. “Did you get a chance to speak to her?”

“No,” She shook her head. “I asked her if she wanted to go dress shopping earlier but she flaked out on me. We arranged to go for drinks tomorrow night, so I promise I’ll ask her what’s going on.”

“Did she not mention anything to you when you guys were getting ready?”

“No,” She said again, “I’m sorry.”

He smiled sadly at her, “It’s not your fault.”

“I know, but I hate seeing you like this.”

“Seeing me like what?”

“Pining after her all the time.”

He scowled at her, “I don’t pine.”

“Sure you don’t,” She breathed out a laugh. “Just go talk to her.”

“Its not that easy, she keeps walking away from me every time I go near her.”

“Damn, you must have done something bad.”

“But I don’t know what it is I’ve done!” He threw his hands in the air, exasperated. “She won’t talk to me to tell me, she’s driving me crazy.”

“Every couple argues Bellamy, she won’t be mad at you forever.”

“Sure fucking seems like it.”

“Hey,” She said gently. “Just give her a bit more time, she’ll come round eventually.”

“Maybe,” He replied though he didn’t think she would.

He didn’t know how to deal with this situation; he had never had too before. Sure, there had been plenty of girls that had been mad at him for not texting them back or calling, but that had been easy to deal with. He usually just avoided them until they got over it and then everything was fine. He couldn’t just ignore Clarke, she was his girlfriend and even if he had wanted to avoid her, he knew he couldn’t. She was like a drug to him and he was addicted to everything about her. The feel of her skin against his, the way she laughed when he told a joke, her lips.

_I’ve gone soft,_ He thought.

He was whipped for her and he knew it.

“I really like her O.” It was the first time he had admitted this out loud, not counting his confession to Echo.

“I know,” She smiled.

“I don’t want to lose her,” He whispered, fear gripping every nerve in his body at the thought.

“You won’t if you don’t fuck it up Bellamy. Don’t treat her how you’ve treated girls in the past, don’t push her away and don’t do anything to hurt her. I know you’ve changed now, but just don’t make the same mistakes you have before.”

_Don’t do anything to hurt her..._

But he was hurting her, wasn’t he?

Even if she didn’t know it, he was.

This bet was going to hurt her.

Since he realised he had feelings for Clarke, the bet was all he could think about. It took over his brain and he was constantly agonising over what to do about it. Sure, he could just tell Wells that he was done with it and that he wouldn’t be participating in the bet anymore. I mean that would be the easiest option right? But Bellamy had been agonising over this decision, because he was scared. He was scared of what all of this meant.

He hadn’t liked someone for a long time and the last time he had, they had broken his heart. It had took a long time for him to get over that and the prospect of opening himself up to someone again, trusting them, scared the crap out of him.

_But losing Clarke scares you more;_ the thought came out of nowhere.

It was right; the thought of loosing Clarke absolutely terrified him. He couldn’t his imagine life without her and trust me he had tried. But every time he pictured himself and his life without her, his chest ached, longing for her to come back. Someone would lose with this bet, whether that be him or Wells. One thing he wasn’t prepared to do was lose her.

_Murphy was right,_ he thought. _I need to call this whole thing off._

“Have you seen Wells?” He asked abruptly to Octavia.

“Yeah he’s in the kitchen, why? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just need to speak to him.”

“Okay,” She replied, “Look don’t put so much pressure on yourself, you’ll work it out with Clarke. I know you will.”

“Yeah,” He muttered distracted, his eyes searching the crowds. “I’ll catch up with you later okay?”

“Bellamy?” Octavia called after him but he was already walking away from her, his head wasn’t in the conversation anymore, he was determined.

He had something that he needed to do.

\---------------

The tears dropped freely down her face as she stared at her handy work. She unsteadily took a step back and moved her hand to her mouth, in an effort to stop a sob escaping. Her other hand was starting to hurt, but the pain barely registered on Clarke’s face. She opened her clenched fist and let the key drop from her hand, the key clinking as it hit the floor. To small angry red welts adorned the skin on her palm from where she had held it so tightly.

Her chest heaved and she took another step back until her shoulders grazed the cold of the wall behind her, she let her body sink down it until she was heap on the floor.

_What have I just done?_ She thought as she continued to stare, her gaze unmoving from the long white line on the car, where the paint had just been scratched off.

She hadn’t noticed the car when she had entered the garage earlier; she was too preoccupied with her phone. It was hidden under a car cover, something that was pretty normal for the people around here to do, so it didn’t strike Clarke as odd when she noticed it there. What was odd however, was the feeling she got when she noticed it. It was as if it was urging her to take a look, needed her too. So she followed her gut and peeked under the hood of the car cover.

That was when she knew.

She knew what kind of car Bellamy drove and this wasn’t it. It certainly wasn’t Murphy’s because he hadn’t gotten his licence yet and Echo’s car was grey. This was bright red and it could only be the car that Wells had been talking about in the bet.

Once she came to this realisation, she became angry. She remembered everything that Bellamy had lied to her about, she remembered the betrayal of her best friend and she was positively seething. That mixed with alcohol was a recipe for disaster and Clarke impulsively grabbed the key off the hook, and keyed the car, letting her anger out on it. And just for a second, it made her feel good.

Afterwards, guilt and shame racked her body; she didn’t feel so good about it anymore. She couldn’t blame anyone for this; she couldn’t blame the alcohol or Echo. This was all her, it wasn’t even apart of the plan.

_God, the plan,_ She remembered and another wave of shame hit her.

She hadn’t done much with regards to the plan that her and Echo had cooked up. She done the first step by ringing him non stop even though she knew he was work, she had even accused him of being with someone else. But this, keying his car, was a totally different level of crazy.

She wiped her tears from her face as she continued to stare at the car in a daze.  She didn’t know who she was anymore, the need for revenge was changing her and she didn’t like the person she was becoming. This wasn’t like Clarke, she was more of a resolving conflict kind of person, she didn’t do this type of stuff and it was eating her up inside. All of the pretending and the lying were getting her down and she didn’t think she could do it anymore.

\----------

Bellamy found Wells in the kitchen where Octavia said he would be. He was alone.

“Hey man,” Bellamy said as he come up to him.

“Hey, have you seen jasper?” Wells gazed up at him.

“No, not for a while. Why?”

“How do you know if you’re high?”

A laugh escaped Bellamy’s throat, “What?”

“How do you know if you’re high?” Wells repeated, his face serious.

“I don’t know man, I’ve never done drugs,” Bellamy shrugged.

“I need to know if I’m high,” His gaze moved from Bellamy and looked at up the ceiling, Wells smiled widely once he caught sight of something and Bellamy followed his gaze. There was nothing there.

“Well have you been smoking pot?”

“No, but I ate the brownies Jasper brought over there and now I feel different.” He jerked his head to the side and Bellamy caught sight of the brownies laying there. He quickly moved into action, grabbing the plate and shoving them in the back of his cupboard far away so none of his guests would eat them.

“Jasper made space cakes? Is he serious! I’m going to fucking kill him!” Bellamy growled once the brownies were safely away.

“Can we get back to my little problem now?”

Bellamy smirked, “How do you feel?”

“Weightless,” Wells nodded. “Like I’m floating.”

“Odds are you’re probably high, especially if you ate Jaspers brownies.”

“Fanfuckingtastic!” Wells yelled in glee and Bellamy laughed again.

“Hey, look I know you’re high right now, but I needed to talk to you about something.”

“Okay talk,” Wells nodded but then his gaze slid past Bellamy’s and his face turned to surprise. “Dude! There’s a dancing mars bar behind you!”

Bellamy rolled his eyes and gripped his friend’s shoulders, shaking them slightly. “Wells focus.”

Wells’ gaze moved back down to Bellamy’s intense one, “I’m focused.”

“I want to talk about the bet with you.”

“The bet,” Wells repeated and nodded, “Right.”

“Are you listening to me?”

“Do you think that if I take my shoes off, I’ll be able to fly?”

_Fuck, it’s no use talking to him whilst he’s like this. I won’t get any sense out of him._

“No Wells you won’t be able to fly,” Bellamy replied slightly irate. “Maybe you should go hang out with the rest of the stoners, they’ll be able to understand what you’re feeling right now.”

Wells shook his head ‘no’ defiantly. “I thought you wanted to talk about the bet.”

“I did-

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you guys!” A voice interrupted them.

Bellamy turned to see Murphy heading towards them and he quickly turned back to Wells. “We’ll talk about this later okay?”

He gave Wells a hard stare as if to say ‘shut up’ and Wells seemed to understand. They couldn’t talk about this in front of Murphy. Bellamy plastered a smile on his face and turned to stare at Murphy who had now joined them, the smile slipped once he caught sight of what Murphy was wearing.

“Did you eat one of Jaspers brownies too?” He groaned.

“Jasper made brownies?” He replied excitedly. “Can I have one?”

“No!” Bellamy said quickly, “Murphy what the fuck are you wearing?”

He was wearing a suit that looked like it had just come from the costume department of _Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat_. The jacket and the pants were stripy with all the colours of the rainbow on it. His t-shirt was plain black and his shoes were relatively normal but he was wearing a headband with two Christmas trees on springs on either side of it. Every time he moved his head, they bobbed from side to side.

“Hey this is fashion alright!”

“Do you like have some sort of sex roleplay with Emori before you come to these parties?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Murphy wiggled his eyebrows at him and Bellamy again rolled his eyes.

“I give up!” He laughed. “Why are both my friends’ weirdos?”

He made a move to leave the group but Murphy stopped him.

“Hey wait, don’t leave. I come with gifts.” Then he side eyed Wells, “Er.. Why is he looking at me like that?”

Bellamy stared at Wells who was openly staring at Murphy like a kid opening presents at Christmas. He hadn’t said a word to anybody, just stared at Murphy with a goofy smile on his face.

Bellamy laughed hard, “You my friend are a pot smokers dream!”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s high as fuck and you’ve come in here full of colours and Christmas trees, God knows what he’s seeing right now.”

“Okkaayyy..” Murphy trailed off uncomfortably, “I brought you my new recipe.”

Bellamy looked down to see him holding two shots, at the bottom of the glass it looked green and at the top it looked yellow.

“What the fuck is that?” He turned his nose up in disgust.

“You know I can’t disclose my ingredients, Bellamy,” Murphy said seriously. “It’s called the Pingu Pongo shot.”

“I’m not drinking that. I might die.”

Murphy let out a sigh and rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic Bellamy. Just drink it.”

“Me? Dramatic?” He laughed.

“Just drink it.” He demanded once more and Bellamy took the glass off of him.

“You’re so pretty,” He heard Wells say and watched as he advanced towards Murphy. Murphy noticing this took a step backwards but the counter behind him blocked his movement and he couldn’t move.

“Bellamy! Get him away from me.”

Wells carried on advancing towards Murphy until he was right in front of him and then he lifted his hands to stroke Murphy’s suit, his eyes wide. Bellamy burst out laughing.

“Get off me, you crazy ass!” Murphy tried to manoeuvre himself away from Wells but instead Wells clasped his hands around his waist holding him still. Then he bent his knees and rested his head against the suit near Murphy’s stomach.

“Bellamy help me!” Murphy begged but Bellamy was laughing too hard to say anything. At that moment Jasper walked in and stopped in his tracks, taking in the situation before him.

“Jasper this is your fault!” Murphy screeched. “Get this idiot off of me!”

Jasper smiled widely, and walked over to Murphy. He grabbed the Christmas tree headband from him and put it on his own head and then bent down so he was eye level with Wells.

“Wells check this out.” Once he had Wells attention, he pulled on of the Christmas trees so it bobbed back and forth and Wells’ eyes followed it as if in a trance. He loosened his grip on Murphy and reached out, but Jasper quickly took a step back.

“If you want it, you’re going to have to catch me!” Jasper teased and with one last flick at the Christmas tree he sprinted out of the kitchen. Wells instantly let go of Murphy and ran after him.

Bellamy had tears streaming from his eyes from laughing so much.

“Thanks for the help.” Murphy muttered.

“No problem,” Bellamy laughed and Murphy scowled at him. 

“So where’s Clarke?” Murphy asked once Bellamy had calmed himself down, “Haven’t seen her in a while.”

Bellamy’s eyes widened as he remembered he needed to talk to her. “Shit, I need to find her.”

“Why? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, she just had to call her mom, but that was a while ago so I need to go check on her.”

Murphy shrugged, “She’s probably with the girls.”

“Yeah,” Bellamy nodded. “I’m gonna go talk to her, see you later?”

Murphy nodded and they fist bumped.

“Hey, you forgot your drink!” Murphy shouted to his retreating back.

“I’ll have some later.” Bellamy waved him off and exited the kitchen.

“More for me then,” Murphy muttered to himself and picked up Bellamy’s shot, downing it.

\---------

 

Murphy was in the middle of concocting another drink when he caught sight of Clarke coming from the garage.

“Hey gorgeous!” He shouted over to her and then looked back down at the drink he had made. “Do you want a drink? It’s made with love.”

He quickly poured a tiny bit of vodka in it and then picked it up.

“Screw you Murphy.” He heard her say and he turned around quickly, not used to the tone of voice she was using. He felt his stomach drop once he saw her, she looked a mess. Her hair was all tangled and there were streaks of black down her face, which indicated to him that she had been crying. He quickly put the drinks down and rushed over to her.

“What’s wrong Clarke?” He asked, worried.

“Get away from me,” She hissed and the alcohol on her breath hit him full force.

_She’s wasted._

“Do you want me to get Bellamy?” He asked his voice laced with concern. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I want you to leave me alone.”

She made a move to go past him but he blocked her, grasping her shoulders gently.

“Talk to me, what’s wrong? Has someone hurt you?”

She stared at him for a few moments, her eyes searching his. For what, he didn’t know.

“Can I ask you something?”

The change of topic confused him, but he went along with it to keep her there with him. He didn’t want her wondering around in this state. “Sure, anything.”

_Where the fuck is Bellamy?_

“Will you be absolutely honest with me?”

“I will always be honest with you Clarke.”

She flinched at his words.

“If you were in a friendship group and two of your closest friends were purposefully hurting another one of your closest friends without them knowing, would you tell them?”

He felt like he’d punched in the gut.

It didn’t take a genius to know what she was getting at.

_But she couldn’t know, could she?_

He opened and closed his mouth, stunned.

She laughed coldly at him and then nodded, “I thought so.”

Then she pushed past him, knocking her shoulder into his forcefully as she went past.

“No, Clarke wait!” He called desperately after her, fear gripping him. She carried on walking,

_What the fuck have I done?_

_\-------------_

Bellamy didn’t find Clarke, instead he found Murphy. Or should he say Murphy found him.

He’d been talking to Harper, asking her if she had seen Clarke when he was roughly grabbed by the back of his t-shirt and yanked backwards away from her. He tried to turn his head to see who it was but he couldn’t. Once he was pulled a distance away from everybody and the culprit let go of his shirt, Bellamy whirled around angrily and came face to face with a stricken looking Murphy.

“What the fuck Murphy!” He yelled and a few party goers close to them looked over to see what the commotion was about.

“I’m sorry!” Murphy breathed out and Bellamy looked at him. Murphy looked terrified, his eyes were scattering about the room wildely as if searching for something and his breaths were coming out fast and heavy.

“Murphy, what’s wrong?”

“We need to find Clarke!” His words were rushed, his eyes still searching the crowds.

“I’ve been looking for her; I don’t know where she is.”

“I’ve just seen her and we need to find her now, before it’s too late.”

“What are you talking about?” Bellamy was seriously confused by his friend’s behaviour.

“We need to find her,” Murphy gabbed his arm and tried to pull him in another direction but Bellamy pulled away from him, forcing him to stop,.

“Murphy, what’s going on?”

“We need to find her Bellamy.” He repeated and tried once again to pull him. Bellamy didn’t move.

“Why are you in a rush to find her?”

“She knows Bellamy!” Murphy yelled, the colour draining from his face. “She knows about the bet.”

The words took a long time to register in Bellamy’s head and Murphy kept tugging at his arm in a effort to move him. But once the words registered, Bellamy couldn’t get his legs to move. Everything seemed to slow down and he couldn’t hear the music pounding around him any more. Instead there was a sound like rushing water in his ears, he tried to focus on what Murphy was saying but his mouth was moving and nothing was coming out.

His heart was pounding against his ribcage and Bellamy began to feel his body shake. He shook his head in some sort of movement as if to say, ‘no it isn’t possible’. But he knew that it was, he knew deep down that Murphy wouldn’t lie to him, not about this.

_She knows._  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay.. I know it's been ages. I already had this chapter written but when I re read over it, I hated it. So I've pretty much spent the entire week writing, deleting and re writing this chapter. I'm still not 100% happy with it, but it's a lot better than what was previously written.   
>  I hope you guys like it. x


	14. Chapter 14

 

A loud screeching noise and the lack of music halted the room into compete silence.

“Can I have everyone’s attention please?” A voice asked, echoing into the silence.

 _I’d know that voice anywhere,_ He thought.

Bellamy quickly looked towards Murphy who was staring back at him with wide eyes; he too had recognised the voice. As soon as they heard the voice, it was like an unspoken agreement between the two of them and they both surged forward, pushing themselves through the crowd that was gathering until they reached the front and caught sight of her.

It had taken a long time for Bellamy to be able to move from the spot he was stood in after the revelation of finding out Clarke knew about the bet. But in the end he had forced his legs to move, so he could search for his currently pissed off girlfriend. Only they hadn’t been able to find her and now here she was standing in front of them, as if appearing from nowhere.

“Firstly, is Jasper around?”  She asked and walked forward scanning the crowd of people before her.

_She doesn’t look as wasted as Murphy had described._

Her hair looked like it had recently been brushed and her make-up was still intact.

_She must have reapplied it, which means she must have been up in my bedroom! That’s why I couldn’t find her._

She wasn’t completely sober, he could tell, but she wasn’t completely wasted either. She seemed to have some resemblance of control about her actions. He could tell she wasn’t completely sober by the little stumble she had when she had walked forward and by the way she was fumbling with the microphone in her hand. It wasn’t enough for anyone else to notice, but he did. Because he knew _her._  

_Where the hell did she get a microphone from?_

“She didn’t look like that when I saw her 25 minutes ago,” Murphy whispered up to him.

“I’m here!” He heard Jasper call from the other side of the crowd; they parted for him so he could walk easily into the middle of the circle that Clarke was stood in.

“Hey gorgeous!” He said and winked as he walked up to her and Bellamy felt a pang of jealousy at the action.

_Fucking Jasper_

“Hellloooo birthday boy!” She replied and a few people ‘whooped’ at her comment.

He sent her a cheeky smile and she ruffled his hair, “I just wanted to bring you up here so we could all wish you a happy birthday.”

“What do we do?” Murphy whispered hastily up to him.

“Are you sure you heard her right? Maybe she doesn’t know anything at all.”

“Bellamy, I’m telling you the truth. She knows.” He looked serious and Bellamy had no doubts on whether to believe him or not. He was his best friend and he wouldn’t lie about something as serious as this. He had just wanted for a second, to believe that all of this wasn’t happening.

“Let’s just see how this plays out before we go barging up to her. It might make her worse,” Bellamy advised.

Murphy nodded and they both averted their attention back to Clarke and Jasper.

“- So here’s to Jasper,” She continued on from a sentence that Bellamy had missed. She held her glass up and he saw a few other people do the same. “Happy birthday dude! And thanks for throwing a rocking party!”

A lot of other people chorused ‘Happy Birthday’ after her and Jasper had a massive grin on his face, obviously lapping up the attention he was currently getting.

“Thanks Clarke.”

“No problem.”

She quickly turned to the crowd and addressed them again.

“So, I have a game that I want to play and I think that you’re all really going to like it.”

“I think I’m about to regret ever bringing that microphone down,” He heard Murphy mutter.

“I was wondering where she could have gotten that from. Why did you bring it down?” 

“I was going to do some karaoke,” He shrugged, his earlier excitement about the night gone.

“As you can see,” Her voice brought his attention back to her. “I have three chairs here, which means I need three people to play.”

A few people shoved their hands in the air, volunteering them selves and Bellamy looked behind where Clarke was standing to see three chairs all lined up next to each other facing the crowd.

“Unfortunately, I already have three volunteers and you have to be quite brave playing this game. It’s called _On The Spot_. So that means that you, as the crowd can ask any question you want to the volunteers. It could be something you’ve always wanted to know about them or just a general enquiry, either way, no matter what you ask, the volunteers have to be completely honest when answering them. It’s basically like a game of confessions and if they don’t answer honestly, they will have to do a forfeit.”

The crowd was getting pumped the more she was explaining herself, but Bellamy wasn’t. Instead he had a sinking feeling in his stomach and he felt like he needed to throw up.

“Are we ready to play?”

There were cheers from the crowd and he saw her smile smugly.

“Okay, so our first volunteer is someone you all know and love! He’s the best part of any party because he always manages to make it fun and he’s going to do the same tonight. Murphy get your ass up here!”

Bellamy felt Murphy stiffen beside him.

_What the fuck is she doing?_

“Did you volunteer?” He asked.

“Fuck no!” He whispered yelled back to him, he looked terrified.

“Has anyone seen him?” Clarke asked the crowd.

“What do I do?” He asked in desperation.

“I don’t know,” Bellamy shrugged and he really didn’t. He had no clue what she was doing or why she was doing it.

He saw her turn around to the side and she instantly caught sight of the two of them, her eyes narrowing as she did so.

“There he is,” She said into the microphone and pointed him out. “Come on up Murphy.”

Murphy was visibly shaking at this point.

“Come on,” She teased, “You can’t let me down now.”

 She turned back and addressed the crowd again, “Can he guys?”

Everyone shouted ‘No’ back. Someone even started a chant with Murphy’s name, urging him to go up.

“I’ve got no choice man,” He mumbled looking back up to Bellamy with anguish.

“She might just want to play a simple game, she’s probably already forgotten about everything,” Bellamy replied lamely trying to cheer him up.

Murphy threw him a ‘Seriously?’ look and Bellamy knew deep down she hadn’t. Why else would she want him to play a game of confessions? She wasn’t stupid.

Murphy gave Clarke a wobbly smile and walked into the middle of the circle.

“You made the right choice Murphy,” Clarke smiled at him, “Just take any one of the seats.”

He took the furthest one away.

“Okay, so our next volunteer is one of my closest friends, he’s a really chill guy but he knows how to have a good time. Wells? Get your butt up here.”

“Err,” He heard Jasper say, who had been stood awkwardly by Clarke’s side since she had wished him happy birthday. “Wells is a bit tied up at the moment.”

He said this mainly to the crowd and then he bent down near Clarke’s ear and whispered something to her, but because the microphone was near his mouth, everyone heard what he said next. “He ate some of my brownies; he’s pretty high right now, so he’s going to be out of action for the next few hours.”

Bellamy put his head in his hands.

_If anyone here told Wells’ dad what he had been up to tonight, he’d be in so much shit. Thanks a lot Jasper._

“Oh,” He heard Clarke say, “That sucks.”

Jasper nodded in agreement.

“Well considering I don’t have another volunteer, there’s not really much point doing this,” She sounded pissed off by this fact and Bellamy saw Murphy let out a sigh of relief from behind her.

The crowd groaned in disappointment.

“Wait,” Jasper said to her, “Don’t stop the game just because he can’t join, use someone else.”

Everybody cheered in agreement.

“No,” Clarke replied irritated, “I can’t do it without Wells.”

“Sure you can, just use somebody else. I mean it’s my birthday, so why don’t I have a go at it?”

Clarke shook her head. “You’re too tame for this kind of game; some of the questions could get brutal.”

“I’m sure I can handle it.”

Realising that there was no way she was getting out of it, she plastered a smile on her face which Bellamy realised was fake and addressed the crowd again. But Bellamy wasn’t listening; he was focused on the smile she was giving everyone. He knew it was a fake smile because he could see how irritated she still was and she wouldn’t have a genuine smile on her face if she felt like that. That wasn’t the issue though, the issue was that he was remembering all the times she had used that smile on him in the past few weeks. Remembering when he had thought they were real genuine smiles.

_Why would she be giving me fake smiles? Wasn’t she happy at the time?_

“The next volunteer is someone I really like, you probably all do too. He’s sweet and funny and he’s doing this for me, no questions asked, so he really is the best boyfriend in the world. Come on up Bellamy!”

He froze and stared at her like deer caught in headlights. He had expected her to call his name, he had just hoped she wouldn’t. As soon as she had said Wells’ name he knew it wasn’t a coincidence.  He walked tensely to the middle of the circle with the sound of cheering. Instead of heading for the only seat left to sit on, he made a beeline straight towards Clarke. She had anticipated this and smiled expectantly at him; he quickly cupped his hand over the top of the microphone and pulled it downwards so no one could hear what they were saying.

“What are you doing Clarke?” He whispered to her.

“Playing a game, what’s wrong with that?” She raised her eyebrow at him, challenging him. He didn’t take the bait.

“Can we just forget about this and go somewhere quiet and talk?” He begged.

She laughed and the warmth of her breath fanned his cheek as they were standing so close, he could smell a tinge of alcohol on her breath when she spoke. “Why do we need to talk? Can’t we just have some fun?”

He didn’t know what she doing or what she was trying to achieve, but he wanted nothing more than to pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and take her somewhere private so he could talk to her. The only reason he didn’t was because he didn’t want to create a scene and he knew she wouldn’t go willingly with him.

He shook his head in annoyance. “I’m not playing this game with you Clarke. Let’s just be mature about this and go somewhere to talk.”

She laughed again, “You mean like you was mature when you made a bet about me?”

There it was.

The words he needed to hear to confirm that she did indeed know about the bet, and the words cut through him like a knife.

“What’s taking so long?” Someone shouted over to them.

“Yeah, are we playing this game or what?” Someone else chimed in.

Clarke quickly shot them a smile and then looked back at Bellamy. With gritted teeth and the fake smile still plastered on her face she said, “If you play this game, I’ll forgive you for what you’ve done.”

Bellamy was stumped by her statement and it took him a few minutes to answer. “You’ll forgive me, just like that? Why? If that was me, I wouldn’t.”

“No not just like that. I’ll be pissed as hell at you for a few weeks, but I’ll be willing to listen to your side of the story and why you did it. I’ll forgive you, but it will take me some time to get over it.”

He wanted nothing more than for her to be okay with him and for things to return to the way they had been, and that’s why he found himself nodding his head and agreeing to participate.

“Hurry up!” Someone moaned and Clarke turned to smile sweetly at them. Bellamy quickly bent down and pecked her on the cheek, to show the surrounding people nothing was wrong. Then he forced a smile on his face and walked over to the empty seat next to Jasper and sat down.

\--

“So now that we have our volunteers, we can get started.”

Bellamy looked over at Murphy whilst Clarke was talking and saw him staring right back at him.

“Did you talk to her?” He mouthed but Bellamy had to get him to repeat it, as he couldn’t see what he was saying the first time. Once he understood, he sent him a shrug and Murphy narrowed his eyes at him in confusion.

“First things first,” Clarke said into the microphone. “You guys wont actually know for sure if they’re being truthful or not, so I’m going to call up the people these guys are most closest too, to keep an eye on the way they act when they are talking and seeing what kind of facial expressions they’re giving. The only people who are even going to have a little knowledge on if they’re lying or not is their girlfriends. So Emori? Maya? You guys are my bullshit callers. If you think your boyfriends lying, call bullshit and they will have to do a forfeit. I’ll be looking out for Bellamy.”

Emori and Maya nodded over at Clarke.

“Okay let’s start a little bit easy, Put your hands up if you consider yourself to be a close friend of Murphy’s?”

Instantly hands flew in the air, but not a lot of them. There was only two people that put their hands up and that was Emori and Octavia. Bellamy knew that this wasn’t because Murphy was a horrible guy, he wasn’t. He just found it hard to trust people and open himself up to them. He preferred having a select few people to call his friends, that way he knew he could trust them.

“Okay, so I’m going to pick Octavia for this one.”

Octavia smiled happily and walked over to Clarke who then manoeuvred her to stand next to Murphy’s chair.

 “Next I need the same for Jasper, hands up if you consider yourself to be close with him.”

This time three people put there hands up and they were people they knew, Monty, Maya and Harper.

Clarke again didn’t go for the easy option by choosing the girlfriend and instead picked Monty. Once he walked into the circle, she asked Monty to stand by Jasper's chair.

 “Last but not least, if you’re closest to Bellamy put your hand up.”

At least four people put their hand up for Bellamy.

“Okay let’s see…” Clarke mumbled into the microphone as she made a choice on who to bring up.

“Err...“ She trailed off and studied the people who had put up their hands. She didn’t really know that many people outside of Bellamy’s close friendship group, so she had to call them out by what they were wearing. “You! Right at the back with the blue top on, what’s your name?”

“Miller,” The man replied as he shuffled his way through the crowd to the front.

Bellamy smiled upon seeing him. Miller also worked with Bellamy at Trikru Corp doing security but Bellamy had known him for years. They weren’t as close as they used to be and they hadn’t talked in a while, but it was nice for Bellamy to hear that he still classed him as a close friend. Miller had settled down with his boyfriend Jackson and he spent most of his time with him, he rarely partied anymore and in a way Bellamy envied him slightly.

“So who should we start off with?” Clarke asked into the microphone.

He heard a few people call his name, but the majority of the people were shouting Murphy’s name.

“Murphy it is,” Clarke laughed and turned to Murphy. “Octavia, what question would you like answering the most?”

She handed the microphone over to Octavia who took it with a polite ‘Thankyou’.

“Right,” Octavia started with a laugh. “So four years ago when I lived with Murphy and Bellamy, we had a house a party. Now I’m sure most of you here were at that party and probably remember it very well.”

A few people chuckled. Bellamy grimaced.

“Somebody at that party thought it would be a great idea to steal all of my underwear from my drawers in my bedroom and make it a requirement that anybody who entered the party must wear them. I remember walking around seeing most of you guys wearing my bras as your head bands and my panties as your wristbands. Some you of even put them on like you did it every day.”

Bellamy groaned out loud and a few people laughed at his disdain of the memory. He remembered this party vividly and it still angered him to this day.

“As you can tell, my brother is still clearly upset by this, just as much as he was at that party when he threatened every single one of you with a spatula to come clean about who’s idea it was to steal my underwear. No one ever owned up. In the end, we found a basket by the front door with some of my underwear in it with a note that said ‘wear me’. “

More people laughed.

“I’m not mad about it anymore, but at the time I was furious. I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion as to who it was but I couldn’t prove it. So, my question to you Murphy is... Was it you who stole my underwear and told everyone to parade about in it?”

Bellamy turned to look at Murphy whose shoulders were shaking from trying to hold in laughter. The tension in them before now long gone.

“Yeah it was me.” He confessed in a fit of laughter, the crowd behind him joining in.

“You sneaky little shit,” Octavia growled playfully at him and smacked him on the head.

“Ow!” He moaned rubbing the spot she had just hit. “No fair, I was only getting you back for putting hot sauce in my drink. I couldn’t get off of the toilet for 3 days. I think it's fair revenge.”

“Hot sauce?” Octavia asked slightly confused. “I didn’t put hot sauce in your drink.”

“No I did!” Came a shout from the crowd and everyone turned to stare at Emori, who was smiling guilty at Murphy.

“It was you?” Murphy asked gaping at her like a fish. “But.. what.. why?”

Emori shrugged and laughed.

“I’m so going to get you back for that!”

“You can try!” She bantered back and stuck her tongue out at him.

“Hold on minute!” Bellamy growled interrupting the exchange between the two of them and everyone went silent. He turned to Murphy and sent him a death glare. “It was you who stole my sisters underwear?”

Murphy gulped. “Oh shit.”

“After this game is over, I’m going to kill you.”

“Come on man!” He complained, “It was just a prank.”

“Just a prank?” Bellamy said incredulously. “You could have done anything else in the entire world; instead you chose to steal my sister’s underwear!”

“Alright calm down Bellamy,” Octavia interrupted. “It was four years ago, I’m over it and you should try getting over it too.”

It was Bellamy’s turn to gape, “but… you  ... Your underwear!”

“Yeah,” Octavia said, “Every girl owns underwear, drop it.” 

He scowled at her and then he turned to Murphy and made a motion of moving his fingers across his throat. A signal to tell Murphy that he was still dead when he got hold of him, Murphy’s eyes widened and he rapidly turned away from him.

It took a few minutes for everyone to calm down after watching the exchange between the two of them. Even Clarke, being as pissed off as she was, couldn’t help but let a giggle out at watching everything go down. Once she had collected her self, she took the microphone from Octavia and began speaking.

“You guys still want more of this?” More cheers came her way.

“Okay, Monty you’re up. What would you like to ask Jasper?”

She walked over and passed the microphone to Monty, once he took it from her, Bellamy watched her movements carefully. She walked over to the windowsill and picked up a red cup, taking a small swig of it and then putting it down.

_Is she still drinking alcohol?_

He wasn’t sure if she was, she had considerably sobered up from what Murphy had described her as like before, so for all he knew she could have been drinking water. He hated the distance between them right now; he hated the silent treatment she had been giving him lately. He would have much preferred for them to be in room somewhere quiet with her screaming at him. It would have been better than the silence.

At least that way he would be able to get an idea of what she might be thinking or feeling, but right now, he had no clue. Not that he had ever been able to tell what she was thinking, but he could usually guess by looking at her facial expressions. Not tonight though, the girl in front of him was like a closed book and he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t understand why she wanted to play this game. Did she just want to have a fun night and pretend like nothing had happened? Was she up too something? This whole thing was making him paranoid.

One of the things he had really liked about Clarke when he met her was the fact that she wasn’t so predictable. But right here, right now, in this situation, he didn’t know if he liked that fact about her anymore. He desperately just wanted to explain himself to her, but she wasn’t having any of it and he knew he needed to give her some space, but he was finding it difficult. He felt like he was waiting for something for something to happen, but he didn’t know what it was. All he knew was that he didn’t want to lose her and he would do anything she asked of him to make sure that didn’t happen.

Clarke caught him staring and her lips turned up at the corners, she gave him a wink and then walked back over to Monty who had just finished asking his question. Bellamy had zoned out for the most of it but he knew Monty had asked Jasper if a rumour about him was true. Bellamy hadn’t needed to hear the story, he had heard it before. Something about Jasper accidentally getting a cop high and of course the rumour was true. It was Jasper.

“Jasper you always know how to entertain,” Clarke giggled once Monty had returned the mic. Jasper saluted to her in response and gave her another wink. Bellamy instantly punched his arm and Jasper yelped a sorry in his direction.

“Break it up guys,” Clarke teased. “Miller, it’s your turn.”

Miller grabbed the microphone and came over to Bellamy and they fist bumped.

“Hey man,” he said holding the microphone away from him. Bellamy nodded at him as a reply and then Miller brought the microphone back up to his mouth and began.

“So I’ve known Bellamy for years, we used to go to high school together. I’ve not really spoken to him in a while because you know, life gets in the way, but I still consider him to be one of my closest friends.”

Bellamy focused his attention on what Miller was saying and brushed his worries about Clarke to the back of his mind.

“Anyway,” He continued. “As most of you know, I have a boyfriend. I hate using labels when it comes to this, but for the sake of this story, we’re just going to say it. Most people here have always known that I’m gay. I’ve been out and proud for many years now and I’m one hundred percent happy and comfortable with myself. However, that wasn’t always the case. I didn’t actually come out until Junior Year, I mean I’ve always known I was gay, but I was scared to come out because I was scared of how my dad and my friends would react. Turns out I hadn’t needed to worry, because my dad was so accepting of it and so were all of my friends, especially Bellamy. He didn’t treat me any differently just because I liked guys. He didn’t get weird about taking his top off around me when it was too hot to wear one, he still joked about with me, the way he usually would and he’d still ask my advice on girls, even though he knew I had no experience with them.”

A few people laughed at his last sentence.

“But just because my friends were cool with it, didn’t mean everyone at school would be,” He said and he had this far off look in his eyes, as if he was remembering this memory vividly. “And I remember there was this one guy who hated the fact that I had come out, hated it. He was pretty much a jerk to everyone but once he realised I was the only out gay kid in the school, he had it out for me. One day I was running late for class and there was no one else in the hallway except him. As soon he saw me he blocked my path and wouldn’t let me get past him. He shouted homophobic words at me and repeatedly told me to kill myself and then he shoved me into the lockers, hard. After that he took my bag from me and emptied the contents of it all over the hallway.  It was humiliating.”

The room was silent, everyone entranced by his story.

“That same thing must have happened to me everyday for about week. He would corner me, shout things at me or even spit at me. But he would only ever do it if we were alone; he never did it in front of anybody. I remember suddenly feeling down everyday and hated the thought of having to go school; Bellamy instantly knew there was something wrong. He made me sit down and pestered me about it for at least an hour and after a while of me not wanting to tell him, I broke down and told him everything that had been happening. He was understandably angry and he tried to give me advice about what to do but it wasn’t any use. I just felt shitty. He walked me home that day, right up to my front door and he promised to walk with me to school the next day.”

 Miller stopped and walked over to Bellamy and stood at the side of him. “That next morning we entered the school and the day went on as normal, until again I seen him walking towards me and I was on my own. I can’t even tell you how scared I was, I was terrified of what was about to happen. But instead of advancing towards me like he usually would, he stopped. And that’s when I noticed a big purple bruise covering his right eye. He didn’t make eye contact with me and he didn’t utter a single word in my direction, instead he walked right back to the way he had just come from. He never bothered me after that, in fact he avoided me like the plague. He never spoke to me, never made eye contact with me and he never came down the hallway I was in.”

This time he turned to look at Bellamy. “So I guess what I want to know is.. was it you? Did you hit that guy and did you say something to him to make them stop coming near me?”

Bellamy nodded slowly, “Yeah.”

Miller instantly wrapped his arms around Bellamy’s shoulders and pulled him into a tight hug. Bellamy hugged him back.

“You have no idea how much that meant to me Bellamy, thank you.” Miller whispered emotionally in his ear. Bellamy could only nod, choked up by emotion. He hadn’t wanted his friend to know that, he hadn’t wanted Miller to feel like he was poking around in his business at the time. But he knew that what that guy was doing was wrong and there was no way he could have stood there and let him get away with it. Most of the people in the crowd clapped at Bellamy’s confession, but it didn’t mean anything to Bellamy. He didn’t need validation for doing the right thing; he had just wanted to protect his friend.

Once Miller had let him go, they fist bumped again and Miller handed the microphone back to Clarke. She walked over to him slowly, her eyes wide, staring at him in what he could only describe as awe.

“Is that true?” She whispered, shocked. “Did you really do that for Miller?”

He nodded. “Of course, he’s my friend I couldn’t let them treat him like that.”

Then she did something he totally didn’t expect, she smiled at him. A real genuine smile.

He hadn’t realised how much he had missed her looking at him like that, until she hadn’t anymore. He couldn’t help it, his own face cracked up into a smile too and they were both locked in a stare with each other. Not an uncomfortable one. For her, she was feeling a new found kind of respect for him and for him, he was realising what he had been missing. It didn’t last long as the connection was broken by someone shouting. “What’s next?”

Clarke’s eyes quickly snapped away from his and she turned back to everyone.

“Well that was fun right?” She asked everyone and they made some sort of noise in agreement. “How about we spice this up a little bit huh?” 

More noise of approval.

“I’m sorry to the girlfriends of the boys in advance; you’re probably going to hate me for this.”

Emori and Maya looked on in confusion.

“Next, I need those of you who have slept with Murphy to put your hands up!” She called out and the room went silent for a second before more cheers followed. Everyone was loving this.

“Come on now, don’t be shy. We all know these boys have a past.”

It didn’t take much coaching and soon enough at least 6 of the girls here who had slept with him put their hands up.

“Well I’m spoilt for choice,” Clarke joked. “I’m going to pick you in the middle, the one with the black dress and tattoos. What’s your name?”

“Ontari,” A young girl from the middle of the crowd replied. She looked kind of bitchy and she was staring at Clarke as if she were better than her.

 “Come on up,” Clarke nodded, not taking any notice of the looks of disdain being thrown her way.  Once Ontari walked past her, Clarke lowered the microphone and mouthed ‘I’m sorry’. Bellamy looked in the direction that she was looking at to see Emori staring at her in part annoyance, part sadness. Emori looked away from Clarke in a huff and Clarke carried on with the game.

“Put your hand up if you’ve slept with Jasper.”

Only one person put their hand up and it was Maya, this earned a few snickers from the crowd.

Hearing this Jasper stood up. “Hey! there is nothing wrong with being a one woman kind of man.”

This earned him a few more snickers, so he slumped back in his seat defeated.

“Come join your boyfriend Maya.”

“And now for the question I’m sure I’m going to regret,” She said and there were more laughs from the crowd. “Who here has slept with Bellamy?”

Only one person put their hand up and Bellamy squinted to see who it was.

Echo.

He’d been pretty confident about being able to avoid this question, as his motto when it came to sleeping with girls meant they wouldn’t be here tonight. If he never saw them again after he slept with them, why would they be at his house at his friends party? That was his logic anyway, but he had forgotten about Echo.

“Well I suppose that’s good news for me,” Clarke said sarcastically. “Echo, up you come.”

Echo didn’t rush; she took her time walking up to Bellamy’s side. Swaying her hips as she did so and lapping up the attention most of the guys were giving her. He saw Clarke roll her eyes as she walked past her and he stifled a laugh.

“Ontari, you’re first. Ask away.”

Ontari took the microphone from Clarke’s hand.

“I’m going to get to straight to the point. Were EX’s for a reason, so we don’t have anything nice to say to each other.”

She turned to Murphy and narrowed her eyes.  “You were seeing her whilst you were sleeping with me.” She nodded her head in Emroi’s direction, who was currently staring daggers at the back of Ontari’s head.

_If looks could kill_

Clarke’s eyes widened upon seeing this as she put the pieces together, she had picked the wrong ex to ask a question.

“I basically want to know what she’s got that I haven’t. So my question to you is, why did you pick her over me?”

“OOOHHHH” came a chorus of cries from the crowd, everyone picking up on the obvious tension. It wasn’t a shock to anybody that Murphy was seeing both girls at the same time. It wasn’t like they didn’t know about each other; he had been honest with them. Plus everyone knew he had a complicated history with Emori.

Murphy shifted uncomfortably in his seat and then he scratched his head, something he did when he was extremely nervous.

“What? Has the cat got your tongue suddenly? Answer the question Murphy.”

“You just weren’t my type,” He said quickly.

“What do you mean I wasn’t your type? Girl is your type!”

“You know, you technically only get one question,” Jasper interjected and she whirled on him.

“Shut up Jasper!” She growled and he instantly closed his mouth and looked away from her. She turned back to Murphy.

“How can I not be your type when you've slept with me?”

“Okay look, you’re a pretty girl and I was obviously attracted to you because I slept with you, so that’s not what I meant when I said you’re not my type. What I meant was, you’re just not really girlfriend material.”

“Dude!” Someone shouted from the crowd and Bellamy was staring hard at the side of his head, trying to signal him to look at him so he could tell him to stop talking. He was digging himself a hole.

“I’m not girlfriend material?” She said her voice dangerously low.

“Wait,” Murphy scrambled, fumbling over his words. “Its.. I.. that’s not what I meant. I just meant that I didn’t want to be with you because you’re kind of intimidating?”

He said it as a question, like he was asking for her permission for it to be right word to use. It wasn’t.

She stepped up to him and he lowered himself down his chair.

“I’m intimidating?!” She roared.

“Well you’re acting intimidating right now, so you’re kind of proving his point,” Bellamy pointed out to her and Clarke laughed. She turned to glare at him.

“He’s kind of right,” Jasper mumbled and she focused her stare on him.

“I..” She started to say, but then she scrunched up her face and clenched her fists. She looked like she was going blow any second and maybe punch Jasper in the face. Instead though, she let out very loud, very screechy frustrated cry. Then she turned back to Murphy and yelled. “Fuck you!”

Then she stomped her foot like a toddler would and stormed back through the circle, the crowd parting so she could get through. Once she left the crowd re gathered.

“I am so glad you’re with Emori,” Clarke said to Murphy and he nodded in agreement.

“Maya, you’re up,” Clarke called over to Maya in an attempt to get the heat off of Murphy. Maya walked up and grabbed the microphone timidly off Clarke.

Maya wasn’t one of the most confident girls here. She was sometimes shy and awkward at times, but she was really funny to be around once you got to know her and she had a big heart. She was perfect for Jasper.

“My question to you is, do you regret that your first time was with me?”

Jasper looked flabbergasted by this question. “Are you serious?”

She nodded shyly knowing everyone’s eyes were on her.

“Not for a single fucking second,” He said adamantly. “And I will never regret it for as long as live. You’re the only girl I ever want to have sex with.”

“Aww,” A few girls at the front of the crowd cooed.

Jasper stood up and wrapped his arms around a blushing Maya before dipping his head low to hers and sweeping her up in a kiss.

“Go on Jasper!” Monty yelled which earned him a smack in the arm from Harper. Once they pulled apart, Maya gave him a quick peck on the lips and then returned the microphone to Clarke who was beaming at her in delight.

“Go girl.” He heard her say and Maya laughed.

\--

“Alright lovebirds, calm down. It’s my turn,” Echo interrupted their moment and grabbed the microphone out of Clarke's hand without saying anything. Clarke scowled at her back.

“Hey gorgeous,” She said down the microphone to Bellamy and he rolled his eyes.

“Stop winding Clarke up, Echo,” He drawled in a bored tone of voice, she winked at him to let him know she was teasing.

“I want to know and I’m sure a lot of girls here do too, if you are officially taken now?”

He let out a sigh.

 _This is again,_ He thought. _When is she going to move on?_

“Well,” He began but was instantly cut off by Echo.

“No!” She shouted, “That’s not the question I was going to ask.”

“Okayyy,” He said longing out the ‘y’ on the word in confusion.

“My question to you Bellamy Blake is, are you falling in love with Clarke Griffin? Because if you are, us girls need to know so we know that we will never have a chance with you.”

 _What the fuck?_ He thought slightly panicked at being put on the spot. Then he narrowed his eyes at her. _She knows exactly what she’s doing._

His gaze quickly travelled towards Clarke who was already staring back at him with a questioning look, she looked tense but expectant. He felt panicked but he didn’t struggle with the words this time. They didn’t scare him anymore and he knew it was exactly how he was feeling for her now. He wanted her. He wanted her mood swings and crankiness in the early mornings, he wanted her when she spoke her mind and didn’t agree with him about everything. And right now more than anything in the world, he wanted her to hear how he felt about her. He wanted her to believe it with every ounce of him, he needed her too. He needed her to know that doing this bet meant nothing to him and that all of it was a mistake. He just wanted to be with her.

“Yeah Echo,” He said, his words coming out strong. His gaze never left Clarke's, he kept his eyes focused on her, waiting. He wanted to see her reaction when he said this, when he finally admitted these words out loud to all of his friends. Some of them, people he hadn’t been able to admit it to before. “I’m falling in love with Clarke Griffin.”

The room burst out in cheers and even Echo gave him a smile. Murphy looked on mouth agape, but he didn’t care about any of it. He only cared about her. He saw the surprise flash across her face first, but it was gone as quick as lightening and suddenly her facial features became hard. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking once again, so he pleaded with his eyes, willing for her to believe him.

But she gave him another fake smile and he knew he had blown it.

\--

He felt his earlier confidence plummet and he watched her in silence. She seemed unsure of her self, like she didn’t know what to do next. Instead of coming over to him, she stayed put and made a big show of blowing him a kiss and winking at him, earning more cheers from their guests.

 _I should have known that wouldn’t have any effect,_ He kicked himself. _Of course she’s not going to believe me after I have been practically lying to her for two months._

“Let’s give a big round of applause to the people who came up and asked questions,” She said into the microphone after her display of fake affection. “We’re going to do one final round and this is going to be the quick fire round, where I can ask each one of the guys about a rumor I’ve heard. Everyone ready?”

She seemed eager to get in to this part of the game.

“Jasper you're first,” She called out too him and swivelled round to face him. “Is it true that you once got so high and drunk you tried to make love to a traffic cone?”

Murphy roared with laughter. 

“What? No!” Jasper denied straight away, ignoring Murphy. “Where did you hear that?”

“I can’t leak my sources I’m afraid,” Clarke wiggled her finger at him. “How about it Maya? Is he lying?”

Maya took a minute to study him before shaking her head, ‘No’.

Jasper stood up, “Whoever said that about me is lying, I would never to do that!”

“The lady doth protest too much,” Murphy snickered behind him and Jasper put the middle finger up at him.

This caused a few people to laugh.

“Alright settle down, the rumor has officially been debunked!”

Jasper crossed his arms and slumped back down on the chair sulking.

“Okay the next rumour I’ve heard is about both of these guys, so this question is too both Murphy and Bellamy.”

Murphy looked at Bellamy with an uneasy stare and Bellamy sent him a shrug back.

_I give up trying to figure out what she’s up too anymore._

“Is it true, that the both of you and Wells made a bet to see if you could get me to sleep with Bellamy within three months? Is it also true that if Bellamy was to succeed with this bet, Wells would pay him money so he could go on holiday? Or that if Wells won, Bellamy would give him his car?”

To some degree he’d expected this, but the shock of actually hearing her say the words out loud was enough to make Bellamy nearly fall off of his chair. The room had gone eerily silent as people tried to figure if what she was saying was true.

That feeling that he had had before, like he was waiting for something to happen, this was it.

Not only did she know about the bet, but now the rest of his friends did too.

“Bellamy?” Octavia asked, confusion written all over her face. “What the fuck is she talking about?”

He shook his head slightly at her, the only movement he could force himself to do.

“Yeah tell her Bellamy. Tell her how the three of you came together and made a bet about me.”

“Is this true?”

“Clarke?” Murphy said meekly. She ignored him, her intense stare roaming over Bellamy's face.

“Tell her Bellamy,” She pushed him.

He managed to pull himself up from his chair with shaky legs.

“Clarke,” He said his voice shaky. “I don’t understand, why are you doing this? You said you would forgive me.”

She looked crestfallen and slightly regretful.

“It sucks to be lied to, doesn’t it?” Her voice was barely a whisper but he heard it. She suddenly looked drained, like she had been holding onto something for a long time and now that she had released it, she was exhausted.

He had done this to her.

He took a step forward towards her, wanting nothing more than to embrace her and try to comfort her, but she took a step away from him and he stopped himself.

“Bellamy?” Octavia asked her again impatiently. “Is what she saying true?”

He looked at his sister dejectedly; he knew he couldn’t keep this up anymore. He knew he couldn’t keep lying to everyone, so he told the truth.

“It’s true.”

The room erupted into chaos all around him.

There were questions being thrown at him left right and centre. Murphy was trying to talk to Clarke, but she kept walking away from him. Octavia's face was one of disapproval and the rest of guests were either looking on in astonishment or trying to get in on the action. But he didn’t care about any of it, the only thing crossing his mind right now were thoughts of two people.

The first one was Clarke.

She was his first priority. He needed to talk to her, needed to make her understand. And for the first time in a long time, she was staring at him openly. There was no mask she was hiding behind to mask her emotions, they were all right there for him to see, skittering across her face. But only one stood out, she looked broken. The pain that seared across his chest when he saw her looking like that was unimaginable, knowing he had caused her to feel this way. He wanted the ground to swallow him up.

The second person he thought of was Wells.

He felt slightly annoyed that he and Murphy were the ones sat here getting scrutinised, especially when Murphy had had little involvement in it and Wells was asleep somewhere upstairs away with the fairies, oblivious to the turmoil that had been inflicted upon his friends. It really pissed Bellamy off.

And then he had a completely inappropriate thought.

_I should have eaten the fucking brownies._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally up! & It's a bit more of a longer chapter than I usually do. I actually loved writing this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it and that you can't wait see all the chaos unfold in the next one! :) Thank you for the comments and kudos x


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